Adhaalath Party, one of the partner's of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's coalition government, has amended their internal procedure to allow women to compete for the position of vice president in the party's presidential elections.
Before this, Adhaalath's internal procedure was explicit in only allowing men to compete for and hold the position of president and vice president within the party. The present changes will allow women candidates to run for the position of vice president.
President of Adhaalath Party's Media Committee Ali Nazeer told RaajjeMV that the internal procedure had been written when the party was first established back in 2005, when party leaders believed that it was the wish of the members that only men occupy the top-leadership positions in Adhaalath. However, he said that the current leadership was different, and that the changes had been brought after many discussions since it was no longer a unanimous belief that limiting the party's leadership to men was the best for the party's visions and goals.
While Adhaalath Party prepares to host internal elections on January 23, members of the party had expressed outrage that women had been excluded from contesting for the position of president and vice president even after the window to submit candidacy applications were opened. Ali Nizar maintains that the changes brought to the party's internal procedure were not brought due to the upcoming elections.
Even though the party's internal procedure has been amended, women still cannot compete for the position of president at Adhaalath Party.
Referring to this, Nizar said that they did not plan on stopping at just allowing women to compete for vice president, and that it was likely that they would change the internal procedure to allow women to contest for the post of president in the future as well. He further revealed that heated discussions were already taking place to that effect.
"We are still not done with these changes. Heated discussions are already taking place regarding whether women should be allowed to contest for the post of President, so it is likely that the change will occur in the future."Ali Nizar, President of the Adhaalath Party Media Committee
Nizar further said that these were not the only amendments brought to the party's internal procedure, detailing that three vice-presidents are to be chosen in the upcoming elections; one as the running-mate on the ticket with whoever succeeds in being elected president by popular vote, and two vice-presidents to be appointed by a vote taken by the party's Congress.
