Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections refused to concede their constituencies to coalition partner Adhaalath Party (AP), despite it being the only scenario where the two parties could compete collaboratively.
Adhaalath Party had proposed both parties to compromise and compete together to secure as many constituencies as possible. MDP held an informal national council meeting to discuss the matter.
Although MDP never formally issued a statement, as per discussions, six constituencies were to be conceded over to Adhaalath Party. These include the constituencies of Vaikaradhoo, Makunudhoo, Mahibadhoo, Kaashidhoo, Milandhoo and Fuvahmulah South.
While MDP's leadership had discussed to hand over the tickets of some constituencies to AP, the party has not confirmed whether their candidates had agreed to the proposal.
MDP submitted the forms to contest in 86 constituencies to Elections Commission (EC) on Wednesday. However, MDP expressed that the submissions did not entirely constitute a rejection of AP's proposal to concede the seats.
“Even those who discussed to hand over their tickets are submitting forms to Elections Commission today. A decision was not reached even by last night”, an MDP candidate revealed to local media Mihaaru on the condition of anonymity.
"The constituents voted for the candidates. So it’s not up to the candidate to give up their tickets. The candidate cannot do that”, said the candidate.
Former President Mohamed Nasheed expressed that MDP cannot concede their constituencies as per AP's request. He reasoned that since the tickets had already been granted to candidates after holding primaries for each constituency, he stated that the chance to run for parliamentary elections were now in the hands of those who won the primaries and the MDP members belonging to those constituencies.
While MDP is submitting forms to contest in all constituencies with the exception of Nilandhoo constituency, further discussions are scheduled to determine whether certain seats could be conceded over.
The ruling coalition’s agreements include running for Presidential Elections, Parliamentary Elections and Local Council Elections collaboratively. The agreement also stated that the shares allocated for each party are based on the ratio of each party’s representation in the governing coalition. All the parties had signed this agreement with the exception of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
However, MDP rejected contesting in the parliamentary elections in accordance with the seat sharing agreement, claiming that the agreement did not concern the parliamentary elections.
This resulted in disputes between MDP and Jumhooree Party, with the latter deciding to contest in parliamentary elections outside the coalition.
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