Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) announced on Sunday that agreements will be reached shortly with ruling coalition partner, Adhaalath Party (AP), to compete in the upcoming parliamentary elections collaboratively.
In a news briefing held by MDP, Deputy Secretary General and spokesperson of the campaign, Afshan Latheef, stated that details about the agreement will be released soon. However, an exact date was not disclosed.
“MDP is holding discussions with Adhaalath Party regarding parliamentary elections. We will hopefully reach an agreement soon”, Afshan said.
Additionally, when questioned about the details of the agreement, Afshan reiterated that details would be disclosed later, but complimented Adhaalath on how effortless it was to hold discussions with them regarding such matters.
“We are always emphasizing that working and consulting with Adhaalath is very easy for MDP”, Afshan enthused.
However, discussions held by the leadership of both parties regarding how many constituencies MDP will concede to AP, have failed to reach an agreement as of yet.
Candidates of MDP submitted forms to Elections Commission (EC) to contest for 86 constituencies. At the time, MDP refused to give up any seats to Adhaalath, stating that they had already secured the primaries and spent on the elections.
After triumphing in 2018’s Presidential Elections, all the parties in the ruling coalition reached an agreement to contest in parliamentary election and local council elections collaboratively. However, following disputes within the coalition about this agreement, parties decided to contest individually.
If the coalition contested in the parliamentary elections as per the rules of their initial agreement, the allocated slots for the parties would be 35 constituencies for MDP, 22 constituencies for Jumhooree Party (JP), 17 constituencies for supporters of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and 13 constituencies for Adhaalath Party.
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