MDP Primary cancellation case: Court jurisdiction in question

The Civil Court has postponed issuing an interim order to suspend the results of the Maldivian Democratic Party's (MDP) presidential primary after the party raised questions about the court's jurisdiction.

The case was filed by Ali Amjad, a member of the party that supports Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, seeking to invalidate the results of the primary. It was submitted after Nasheed, who ran in the MDP primary election against President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on January 28, lost the election.

The Civil Court had scheduled a hearing for today to discuss placing an interim order on the implementation of the primary results. However, MDP has questioned the jurisdiction of the court and raised several procedural issues in the case.

According to the Civil Procedure Code, if the respondent raises questions about the jurisdiction of the court to hear a certain case, they must provide a case for it. The court is then required to make decision on the matter.

The court has given 10 days to formulate a response.

In the most competitive primary ever held in the MDP, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won by 61 percent.

Although the President won the primary by a large majority, Nasheed's supporters have questioned the validity of the primary.

Nasheed did not accept this result and launched a political movement called "Fikurregge Dhirun" (meaning "reviving an ideology" in Dhivehi). A large number of MDP members have signed up for the movement; according to Maafannu MP Ibrahim Rasheed, more than 50,000 people have signed up so far.