Two additional individuals have expressed their interest in running for the North Hithadhoo constituency seat after yesterday's Supreme Court's ruling that North Hithadhoo MP Mohamed Sinan had lost his parliamentary seat.

After the Supreme Court's ruling that the North Hithadhoo constituency seat had been vacated, the first individual to express interest in running for the seat was former Addu City Mayor Abdulla Sodhiq (Sobe).

An additional two people have since expressed interest in running in the by-election for the seat. They are Ahmed Saeed (Naya), who ran in the 2013 and 2019 Parliamentary Elections, and Mohamed Ali.

Saeed and Mohamed Ali stated today that they have not yet come to a decision as to whether they will be running in the by-election for the position.

"What I saw is that there is no one in the Parliament who is working for the sake of the public. I believe that there should be those who work for the mandate of the citizens," said Mohamed Ali, who runs a construction company.

"That is what I am interested in. To become an MP to work on behalf of the citizen's opinions."

While competition for the by-election for North Hithadhoo constituency is on the rise, Hithadhoo constituency President and MDP member Sodhiq has already served as Mayor of Addu for 10 years, from 2011 to 2021. Afterward, he worked as the State Minister for the Ministry of Finance and Planning during the MDP government.

The case against ruling People's National Congress (PNC) MP was submitted to court by Ghalib Saleem, appealing to the court to rule that Sinan has lost his seat as he failed to pay back an MVR 2.5 million loan taken from the Maldives Islamic Bank as per the court ruling in October, 2024.

In yesterday's hearing, presiding judge, Judge Aisha Shujune Mohamed stated that the lower court ruling instructed Sinan to pay back the loan in installments divided over six months, but Sinan had failed to comply. Although Sinan claimed that the payments had not been made because he had been unaware of the court ruling, documents prove that he had been notified ahead, Judge Shujune said.