MBC to hold second round of presidential debate

The Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) has decided to hold a second round of the presidential debate, between presidential run-off candidates Mohamed Nasheed of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Abdullah Yameen of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

MBC said in a statement published today that the debate, organised in collaboration with the National University of Maldives, will be held on Monday, 23 September at Dharubaaruge.

Questions will be posed to the candidates to allow them to present their policies on different sectors, and unlike the first round, candidates will also be given the opportunity to criticise each other’s policies, said MBC.

In the first round of the presidential election, MDP’s Mohamed Nasheed obtained 95,224 votes (45.5 percent), while PPM’s Abdullah Yameen obtained 53,009 votes (25 percent).

MBC said that they hope that the second round of the presidential debate would, similar to the first round, be an informative and successful debate, and one in which the candidates respect the rules and guidelines.