Ex-president Solih announces bid for 2028 presidential election

Former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has announced his decision to contest in main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s presidential primary for 2028’s presidential election.

Solih announced the decision during a meeting with his supporters. This was confirmed to Sun by one of his supporters who attended the meeting.

Solih’s announcement comes amid intense competition within MDP for the presidential ticket. In this regard, MDP’s chairperson Fayyaz Ismail has also announced his decision to compete in the presidential primary. Although MDP’s leader Abdulla Shahid has not explicitly expressed interest, there have been rumors that he has been campaigning for the presidential ticket.

Notably, the announcement also comes shortly after MDP’s former leader, former president Mohamed Nasheed and his supporters, who formed The Democrats, have decided to rejoin MDP. In this regard, MDP is scheduled to host a function tomorrow night to officially welcome them back.

While Nasheed is set to rejoin MDP, he has also expressed interest in contesting in the presidential election.

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

MDP’s national council convened for an unofficial meeting at the party’s headquarters at on Wednesday night to discuss this decision, where none of the national council members raised any objections to the Democrats rejoining the MDP, and decided to welcome them 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 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.

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.