Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail has said that none in the leadership positions of the party have any intentions of resigning at present.
Fayyaz made these comments at a press conference held last night following the party's National Council meeting.
Despite contesting for 89 seats, MDP only managed to win 12 seats in the recent parliamentary election. Ruling People's National Congress, meanwhile, secured parliamentary super majority.
At last night's press conference, a journalist posed a question about leadership intentions following some calls for their resignation after the party's loss in the last two major elections.
Fayyaz responded that the party did not believe in leaders resigning after elections, saying that there are winners and losers in every election.
The party's National Council decided last night to conduct a research into the reasons behind their loss in the last presidential election and parliamentary election.
Fayyaz said that the future of the party can only be mapped out after this research is concluded.
He added that with the party's congress due to be held next year, members would have the opportunity to change the leadership if they were dissatisfied with the current leaders.
"In the future, if our members need to change the leadership, they will have that opportunity as well. However, we do not believe the time for that is now," Fayyaz said.
Fayyaz said that this is the time to strengthen the party and that it is crucial for the country that MDP persists with its work. Hence, he said, no action will be taken that may, in any way, hinder this.
Fayyaz believes that the calls for leadership resignation are mostly coming from individuals who are against the party's ideology. He, however, accepts that there is some level of difference of thought even amongst members of the party.
"In any case, we have no intentions of resigning at this time," Fayyaz stated.
With a journalist pointing out that there are multiple calls from the public for the resignation of Fayyaz, MDP's President Abdulla Shahid weighed in with his opinion.
Shahid told Fayyaz that he "must not resign under any circumstances".
Shahid said that the current leadership of MDP is not made up cowards who will flee the arena every time a loss is faced.
"We will remain steadfast. We will be faithful towards the responsibility handed to us by members. We will, God willing, even bring MDP back to power. Maldivian Citizens will also see again in the future MDP taking majority in parliament," Shahid asserted.
Shahid declared that MDP is not the type to think 'the sky has fallen' just because one election was lost.
He recalled past events, including the 2013 presidential election, and the 2014 parliamentary election, both of which the party lost. He reminded that even at that time, the party's National Council had decided to research the reasons for the defeat.
"We conducted a similar research, acted accordingly, and in 2018 we won the presidency. In 2019, we won a large majority in the parliament," Shahid said, adding that this is why a similar research has been decided on this time around as well.
"God willing, in light of this research, MDP will win the next presidential election. And we will go on to win the parliamentary election that follows. MDP acts with forward planning, researching what has gone wrong."
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