Central Hithadhoo MP withdraws from parliamentary election

Central Hithadhoo MP Ahmed Rasheed has decided not to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The deadline for filing nominations for the parliamentary elections expired on February 14.

Elections Commission Vice President and Spokesperson Ismail Habeeb said in a post on X last evening that out of those who submitted their applications for the parliamentary elections, 372 candidates are deemed eligible. However, four candidates have since withdrawn their candidacies.

According to Habeeb, the candidates who withdrew their candidacies were the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate contesting the Mulah constituency, the People's National Congress (PNC) candidate contesting the Gadhdhoo constituency, an independent candidate contesting the Kinbidhoo constituency, and Central Hithadhoo MP Ahmed Rasheed contesting for a new term on The Democrats ticket.

However, the reason for his withdrawal from the election is yet to be disclosed.

Habeeb added that a total of 368 candidates are contesting the parliamentary elections. The majority of them are independent candidates, totaling 138. While the opposition MDP is fielding 90 candidates, the ruling party PNC has 89 candidates contesting the parliamentary elections.