Ali Azim issues complaints regarding fairness of primary

Ali Azim, who is running for Mayor of Male' in the upcoming Local Council Election, has issued some complaints yesterday to MDP regarding the primary.

MDP's primary will be held on 16th January with 125 candidates contesting the primary, as was stated by the party yesterday. A list of the candidates, along with their candidate numbers, was publicized yesterday as well.

Former Central Henveiru constituency MP Ali Azim is running against the current Mayor of Male' Adam Azim in the primary. As per one of the more important things in Ali Azim's letter, as per Article 4 of MDP's election rules, he requests that only party members who have been registered in the Election Commission's (EC) registry up until 11th December to be able to vote in the upcoming primary.

Along with that, Azim requested that it be determined the MDP's internal election rules have been acknowledged by a former High Court judge and whether it is the same set of rules that have been made public on MDP's website.

Ali Azim's letter to President of the Judge's Bench Ahmed Abdulla Afeef regarding MDP's appeal stated that the party's fundamental regulation and election rules reads that MDP's secretariates are to do the work regarding secretariates, so that responsibility cannot be handed over to another position.

"...the EC and its committee members are to act in order to make the Local Council Election primary fair," as was written in Ali Azim's letter in order to determine the fairness of the primary.

His concern is that the primary was arranged in such a way that it violates MDP's internal election rules, with changes having been brought to the internal election rules against MDP's fundamental rules.

In Ali Azim's complaint letter, while referring to Article 4 of MDP's "Election Regulations 2013", members who have only been documented in the registry up until the day of the announcement for the election are the only ones who have the right to vote in the party's internal elections.

Ali Azim said that as per the article, running for the Local Council Election was announced on 11th December by MDP as per a publicized announcement.

"The only announcement that was made by MDP regarding the election was on 11th December 2025 via an announcement. And so, the closing of the registry of members who can vote in the primary at an earlier date and then publicizing said list is not something MDP's internal election rules allows," as was written in Ali Azim's letter.

"And so, as per Article 4 of MDP's internal election rules, members who have been included in the EC's registry before 11th December 2025, Wednesday are the only ones who can vote in the primary."

The recent change that has been brought to Article 4 states that only MDP members can vote in the internal election. As MDP's fundamental rules state that the MDP National Council is to pass the public set of rules that describes the party's internal election arrangements, Ali Azim said that the council had not passed the amendment to Article 4.

"And so, he has worked to campaign for my competing candidate Mayor of Male' Adam Azim by posting on social media platforms. Along with that, once Adam Azim was elected as Mayor of the City Council, Falah was someone who was appointed as council supervisor," Ali Azim said while listing complaints regarding EC Vice Chairperson Ibrahim Muizzu.

"And as he is in a position who would be reporting to Adam Azim, I believe that Ibrahim Muizzu working in a way that 'does not cause difficulty to any party' in an election that Adam Azim takes part in is something that should not be possible intellectually, I believe he needs to step away or be sidelined from the committee."

EC's Shathir Abdul Rahman is also another individual who supported Adam Azim on social media, said Ali Azim.

As per Ali Azim, there has always been someone with conflicting interests, regarding a competing candidate, on the committee during each MDP election, and that they have been sidelined from the election.