Maldives Reform Party (MRM) has decided they will not join in Maldivian Democratic Party's (MDP) coalition for the first round of voting in this year's presidential election.
MRM, founded by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, is a member of the current coalition administration, led by MDP. The party had invited MRM to extend their partnership as President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih runs for a second term in office. While two meetings had been held between the parties so far to discuss this matter, MRM had not accepted their invitation until now.
However, MRM had recently announced they will be running for the presidential election separately. MRM's leader Faris Maumoon had decided to contest in the election and announced today that they will not be working together with MDP during the first round of the election.
MRM had discussions with Jumhooree Party yesterday about working together.
In a statement released by MRM, they said they had discussed with MDP regarding cooperating in various ways.
"Unofficially and in writing, we have discussed this, the policies that MRM supports have been revealed," the party's statement said.
However, they decided not to work with MDP because they cannot fully support the policies proposed by MDP. They have now informed MDP of their decision.
Even though MRM is attempting to run for the election with Faris as their candidate, the party faces legal obstacles.
The Elections Commission decided to dissolve MRM as it did not meet the minimum requirement of 3,000 members mandated by the law. However, when MRM challenged the decision in the Civil Court, the court issued a directive to the Elections Commission to halt the process of party dissolution, stating that it was deemed unlawful.
The EC's request to review the decision also ended up against the commission. However, the party has not been invited by the commission to join any meetings they hold regarding the presidential election.
MDP's Deputy Chairperson, Minister at President's Office Ibrahim Waheed said MRM's refusal to work together is not an obstacle for them to win the election.
In addition to MRM, MDP had extended the invitation to Jumhooree Party (JP) and Adhaalath Party to stay with the coalition as President Solih runs for a second term.
In the latest meeting between the two parties, attended by MDP's Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail and MRM's Faris, MRM had requested for reassurance that the system of governance should not be changed. Additionally, they had asked for assurance regarding their ability to maintain the coalition as well.
Even though these matters remain unresolved, MRM had decided to contest in the election separately. They held a meeting with JP to discuss MRM's decision of Faris running for president.
Commenting on the MRM's decision, Deputy Chairperson Waheed said the decision not to go ahead with MDP for another term in the coalition was not an obstacle for the party. Even if they withdrew because they cannot support MDP's policies, they were formed and implemented after listening closely to the people, he said.
"To be dissatisfied with our policies is to be dissatisfied with the people's policies," he said.
In the upcoming term, MDP will be formulating policies based on the suggestions that the people want by listening closely to them, he added.
Waheed said MDP's goal is to secure a second term for President Solih. They are confident that he will win the election with the majority number of votes, he said.
From the three parties that had formed a coalition with MDP in 2018, only Adaalath has expressed they will renew the coalition for President Solih's bid for a second term. JP and MRM have decided to part ways with the party.
However, Maldives Democratic Alliance (MDA), founded by Meedhoo MP Ahmed Siyam, have decided to join MDP's coalition.
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