The Maldivian government on Sunday welcomed Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s nomination of parliamentary group leader Ibrahim "Ibu" Mohamed Solih as its presidential candidate, and again called on the main opposition to participate in all-party talks.
The invitation was again extended to MDP by the state representative at the talks, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Dr. Mohamed Shainee.
In a statement, the chairperson of the all-party talks declared that MDP's decision to nominate a candidate that met the constitutional criteria for a presidential candidate would facilitate the way to a stronger democracy, and a transparent, free and fair election.
The minister also expressed hopes that the development would allow inter-party discussions for political reconciliation. He called on political parties to join the government for all-party talks in order to hold an independent, fair, transparent and successful presidential election.
He further urged MDP to renounce its boycott of the elections advisory committee, calling for the main opposition's cooperation to ensure a smooth election.
Prior to his statement, Shainee had also personally tweeted his approval of Ibu as MDP's presidential nominee.
MDP congress decision to nominate Hon MP @ibusolih as presidential candidate, who meets the constitutional criteria is a step towards political reconciliation. Hope honest campaigning can start now.
— Mohamed Shainee (@mshainee) July 1, 2018
While the minister has again called for all-party talks, previous plans to hold government-opposition discussions had fallen through due to irreconcilable differences. Efforts to hold talks mediated by the UN had also failed to bear fruit, with the government stating that it would not allow any parties to bring provisos to the table whilst opposition parties had refused to participate in the discussion unless the state met their conditions.
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