The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) President and Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed said on Friday that there were no more discussions he could have with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih regarding the upcoming presidential election.
Both Nasheed and Solih ran in the MDP primary election held on January 28. As a result of Speaker Nasheed's defeat in the primary, President Solih will be running for re-election on the MDP presidential ticket.
Responding to MDP's Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail, Nasheed said on his unofficial Twitter account, "anedhivehirajje," with the username "MN unoffical" (which stands for "Mohamed Nasheed unoffical"), that he has nothing to discuss with MDP.
An hour and a half later, he replied to his own tweet and amended his initial statement. In the follow-up tweet, he said it was a mistake to say he would not be having discussions with MDP. He clarified that while he hopes to bring about positive changes to the Maldives and the MDP, he does not think this can be achieved by working with President Solih.
After holding discussions with the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) to form a coalition, Fayyaz, who is also the Minister for Economic Development, said in an interview with One Online that he believes all MDP members will unite before the election.
He had said they were discussing the issue of unity with Nasheed as well.
While efforts are being made to bring the two MDP leaders and former allies together, Speaker Nasheed is attempting to establish a separate movement within the party known as the "Fikuregge Dhirun" (meaning "reviving an ideology).
He has said that he will decide how to proceed with presidential elections once he has secured 50,000 members behind this movement.
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