MP Elect Yaseen Abdulla, who won the seat for the Naifaru constituency in Sunday's parliamentary election as an independent candidate, has officially joined ruling People's National Congress (PNC) yesterday.
MP Elect Yaseen Abdulla, who won the seat for the Naifaru constituency in Sunday's parliamentary election as an independent candidate, has officially joined ruling People's National Congress (PNC) yesterday.
Yaseen's electoral agent Zakariyya Rimzan confirmed this move on via a social media post, and added that Yaseen had made the move of his own volition to unconditionally work alongside President Dr Mohamed Muizzu as he urged the newly elected MPs to.
PNC Spokesperson Heena Waleed also confirmed that Yaseen has joined the party.
Yaseen is the Lhaviyani Atoll Council President. He contested as an independent candidate after having faced defeat in PNC's primaries.
The closest contender to Yaseen was Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s Ahmed Yasir. PNC candidate Hassaan Ali Fulhu also contested for the seat. While Hassaan received 880 votes, Yaseen won the seat with 1038 votes.
The recently ratified Anti Defection Act states that a member must resign if they sign to a party during their term in office after having been elected as an independent. However, the law does not define a course of action in the instance the change in party is affected ahead of MPs taking oath of office.
The law also does not specify what will happen if the MPs elected as independents are already signed up as members of a political party.
Former Vice President of Elections Commission Ismail Habeeb has also raised concerns about this earlier today.
"Candidates contested in the parliamentary election as independents. He has been elected. He is a member of a political party. However, he was elected as an Independent candidate. What will happen once Elections Commission notifies the parliament that he is a member of a political party?" Habeeb posted on social media platform, X.
Habeeb went on to question what would be the action taken if an MP is associated with a party or signed up as a member of a party without their knowledge.
"As neither of these situations are addressed in the Anti Defection Act, these questions have arisen in my mind," he said.
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