MDP’s nation council to convene tonight to discuss return of Nasheed and other Democrats

The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s national council is set to convene for a meeting on Wednesday night, to discuss the decision by former president Mohamed Nasheed and other Democrats to return to the party they left two years back.

During a national assembly meeting on Tuesday, Democrats passed a resolution agreeing that all members will rejoin the MDP.

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.”

The MDP’s national council is set to convene for an unofficial meeting at the party’s headquarters at 08:30 pm on Wednesday to discuss this decision.

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 Ibrahim Mohamed 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 helped found and led for over a decade.

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.