Moosa steps down as chairperson, Nasheed appointed interim president of MDP

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) National Council has passed to appoint former President Mohamed Nasheed as the party’s interim president, after its Chairperson Reeko Moosa Manik resigned at a meeting held at Dharubaaruge this evening.

The motion to appoint Nasheed as the party’s interim president, submitted by national council member Ibrahim Waheed, was voted in favour by 47 out of 54 national council members.

Following his resignation, Moosa was praised by members for following democratic principles.

Moosa said that he should not be held responsible for MDP’s failures in recent elections, and that the elections were directly supervised by Nasheed.

He said, “I decided to resign because I believe in democracy. I alone can’t be responsible for that. But I led the process, hoping others would see it as an example.”

The council also passed at today’s meeting to allow permanent national council membership to former presidents and vice presidents who ran for office on MDP ticket, thereby allowing Nasheed to remain a member of the council; to appoint members to vacant party posts within six months; and to hold its congress on 6 and 7 June 2014.