MDP PG: We welcome anyone who hasn’t harmed our party

Anyone who hasn’t harmed the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) can join and will be welcomed by the party, says its parliamentary group.

During a national assembly meeting on Tuesday, Democrats passed a resolution agreeing that all members, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, will rejoin the main opposition party.

MDP’s parliamentary group were questioned regarding this decision during a press briefing at the Parliament building on Wednesday.

Responding to these questions, Kendhoo MP Mauroof Zakir said that anyone who hasn’t violated the MDP’s principles or caused no harm to the party can rejoin the MDP, and will in fact be welcomed by the party.

“Anyone who has not violated MDP’s rules and principles and has not harmed the party in any way must have the right to join the MDP. As a matter of fact, we welcome it,” responded Mauroof.

But he said the MDP’s parliamentary group has not held any discussions on the subject.

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 the decision by Nasheed and other Democrats to rejoin the party they left two years back.

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.