Vice President-elect and Fares-Maathoda MP Hussain Mohamed Latheef has formally informed the parliament that he has left the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and joined the People's National Congress (PNC).
Speaker of parliament and former president Mohamed Nasheed made this announcement during the beginning of the parliament sitting on Tuesday. He said that Hussain Mohamed Latheef contested in the presidential election as Dr. Muizzu's running mate after this change.
Speaker Nasheed said that Hussain Mohamed Latheef as well as the Elections Commission (EC) had formally informed the parliament of this change in political affiliation.
PNC contested in this year's presidential election due to legal barriers that prevented the PPM candidate, Abdulla Yameen, from running for president while serving an 11-year prison sentence.
According to PNC's constitution, only a party member can run for president in the party's name. Therefore, Dr. Muizzu, who was the vice president of the PPM at the time, left the party and joined PNC before participating in the election.
Dr. Muizzu and his running mate Hussain Mohamed Latheef won the election with 129,159 votes. Their rival, presidential candidate of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih received 109,868 votes.
Following the vice president-elect's change in political affiliation, the parliament registry now comprises 56 members from MDP, 13 members from The Democrats, 4 members from the PPM, 4 members from PNC, 3 members from the Maldives National Party (MNP), 2 members from the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA), 2 members from the Jumhooree Party (JP), and 3 independent members with no party affiliation.
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