Adhaalath Party, one of the partners of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's coalition government, has begun work to amend their internal procedure to allow women to contest for the position of president in the party's internal elections.

While the party recently brought an amendment allowing women to compete for vice president, its president and current Home Minister Imran Abdulla confirmed the motion to allow women to run for presidency. Seven members of the party's national congress signed the motion led by Imran, following consultation with senior religious scholars.

Imran said that they had done so in consideration of all the progress AP had made, and in order to further open up the party and allow women more opportunities to be active in the party's top leadership positions.

The home minister further explained there had been no religious motivations for only allowing men to contest for the position of president and vice president at the party, and said that the internal procedure had been written with such limitations only as AP's founders believed that was the wish of the party's members.

Some other recent changes to Adhaalath's internal procedure includes the decision to appoint three vice presidents; 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.

Adhaalath Party's internal elections are set to be held on 23 January.

The move to amend Adhaalath's internal procedure to allow women to compete for the top leadership positions comes at the heels of a declaration by the Elections Commission (EC) stating that they would be issuing warnings to Adhaalath Party to change their internal procedure if such limitations existed for women seeking to occupy top leadership positions within the party.

Elections Commission also received complaints from members of AP regarding the changes being brought to the party's internal procedures and election framework, which accuse certain party leaders of attempting to consolidate power and disregarding the party's founding beliefs.