President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has congratulated former President Mohamed Nasheed and MP Eva Abdulla for securing Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s nomination for speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.

The main ruling party’s parliamentary group members on Monday night unanimously voted to nominate Nasheed and Eva for the senior most parliamentary positions.

In a tweet after the meeting, the President said that, as MDP’s most senior official, he offers his congratulations to them and the parliamentary group and that he looks forward to work with the new Majlis on behalf of all Maldivians.

While five of MDP’s elected MPs expressed interest in becoming speaker, the toughest competition was between Aslam and Afeef, since MDP leader Nasheed expressed support for Aslam while President Solih had shown support for Afeef.

Their supporters had been embroiled in heated debates on social media.

Nasheed, who had not shown interest in the role of speaker, initially declined after he was nominated by North Hithadhoo MP Mohamed Aslam at Monday night’s meeting but later accepted after Vilufushi MP-elect Hassan Afeef also expressed support.

Nasheed said that he accepted his nomination after considering the difficult situation within the party and out of respect to the members’ wishes.

The newly elected MPs will take their oaths on Tuesday and, at the first sitting, elect their new speaker and deputy speaker by secret ballot.

MDP won 65 of the 87 seats in the last parliamentary election.