Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim has said that the party is on hiatus.

He said this at a ceremony on Monday night to sign media figure Ahmed Anoosh onto the party.

At the event, Qasim said that JP was forced to go on hiatus due to the results of the parliamentary election.

JP had aligned with the opposition coalition for the parliamentary election and won five out of 87 seats, with main ruling party MDP winning 65 seats.

Qasim said that he believes changes need to be made to JP based on past experience and that he has not forgotten the party’s work to elect President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and will continue to support the government.

He also criticized the judiciary after highlighting the freezing of his company’s bank accounts during President Abdulla Yameen’s administration.