Vice President of the People's National Congress (PNC) stated last night that all Addu experienced when former Addu City Mayor Abdulla Sodiq (Sobe) took office was negligence and that he is to take full responsibility.

PNC candidate Ahmed Saeed (Soda) will be running against Sodiq under the Maldivian Democratic Party's (MDP) ticket in the North Hithadhoo constituency by-election on 6th June.

During Saeed's campaign rally last night that was held at Addu Hithadhoo, Shiyam had shared the reasons as to why the North Hithadhoo seat should not be given to Sodiq.

Shiyam, who is also the Minister of Fisheries, highlighted that Sodiq had the opportunity to represent Addu from 2008 to 2011. He said that was the time Sodiq had the opportunity to serve the citizens in an official capacity and with the Decentralization Act being created in 2011, Sodiq was elected by the people as the first Mayor of Addu.

According to Shiyam, Sodiq was given the opportunity to serve as the Mayor of Addu for more than 10 years.

"He has had the opportunity to serve as mayor for around 11 years, more than 10 years from 2011 to 2021 until his term came to an end. He ran for the next term as well, but the citizens decided that Abdulla Sodiq had been given enough," said Shiyam.

He went on to say that Sodiq ran for the mayoral seat under MDP's ticket in 2021 but MDP had told him no internally as well.

"He initially lost in an internal MDP election. Even MDP said no. That is enough," said Shiyam during the campaign rally.

Shiyam stated that as Sodiq was unable to retain his mayoral seat, former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had appointed Sodiq as a State Minister of the then-Planning Ministry. However, Shiyam heavily criticized Sodiq as there were no urban, social or economic developments.

"Abdulla Sodiq held the most important political position in the history of Addu City as the State Minister of the Planning Ministry at the time. Most of the projects in Addu are linked to urban development," said Shiyam. 

"The story I am trying to tell is that a child can grow up and be able to vote, within a time frame from 2021 until the government's term came to an end. Today, we need to look around at this city. The state of the constituency. The state of urban development and social development. The state of economic development. There is a lot of negligence."

He said that Sodiq has to take full responsibility for his negligence towards the city while he was in such a position.

"There is negligence towards the city and especially to the constituency as a whole. Abdulla Sodiq is to take full responsibility for this negligence," said Shiyam.

Shiyam went on to say that Sodiq is running as a candidate for the North Hithadhoo constituency seat in Parliament not to serve the people but for political purposes.

According to Shiyam, Addu is a city that has voted in and given many opportunities to councilors and Parliament members of MDP. He also said that both MDP governments took office because of the support from Addu.

During the Parliamentary Election, the North Hithadhoo seat was won by PNC member Mohamed Sinan. However, he lost his seat due to the case in October 2024 where he, along with another individual, were unable to make payments on a MVR 2.5 million loan from the Islamic Bank in accordance with a court ruling.

And so, in an effort to defend the seat, PNC has been conducting door-to-door campaign activities.