Nasheed and other Democrats set to rejoin MDP

Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, who had left the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) ahead of the presidential election in 2023, decided on Tuesday to rejoin the party he helped found, along with everyone who exited with him to form his new party, the Democrats.

Democrats held a national assembly meeting on Tuesday, during which they passed a resolution agreeing that all members of the party will rejoin the MDP.

This has been confirmed by multiple members who attended the meeting.

According to Tuesday’s resolution, members of the Democrats were joining the MDP because they believe “a strong opposition is the best way to win the local council election, improve Maldives’ future, uphold an accountable state, and restore the waning faith in a competitive multi-party system.”

“We don’t have any issue with MDP’s constitution. The issue we had was with the administration at the time,” said one source, referring to former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration.

Nasheed, one of the founding members of the MDP, held office from 2008 until his resignation in 2012, a decision that he later said he was forced to make due to a coup by the security forces.

In 2018, Nasheed backed a successful campaign to hoist Solih to power, after he was ruled out of contention due to a conviction that was later overturned.

But tensions flared between Nasheed and Solih as it drew closer to the 2023 presidential election, especially after the former lost the MDP presidential ticket to the latter in January that year.

The rivalry between them created a rift within the MDP, culminating into Nasheed and those loyal to him leaving the party in June 2023, to form a new party, the Democrats.

Following the formation, Nasheed famously declared that he would “dismantle” the MDP, a party that he had helped found.

This rift is widely believed to be one of the main reasons for MDP’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election.

In December 2023, Nasheed announced he was taking “a respite from active politics” to assume a new post in Ghana as the secretary general of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF).

But in January this year, Nasheed said that he hasn’t completely moved away from politics despite his new role, and in April, he urged the MDP and Democrats to work together, saying that he believes that to be in the best interest of the country, as well as the two parties.

Nasheed’s decision to rejoin the MDP comes a day after he met with MDP chairperson Fayyaz Ismail.

It also comes with the Maldives set to hold two key elections; the local council election in 2026, and the presidential election in 2028 – the latter of which Nasheed has said he is considering contesting.

The decision by Nasheed to rejoin the MDP increases the rivalry within the party for its presidential ticket. Fayyaz has already announced he plans to contest in the party’s presidential primary, while sources confirm that both Solih and the party’s president Abdulla Shahid are also campaigning for the ticket.