Nasheed accuses president of expelling non-supporters in MDP
According to party sources, the party now has a valid registry.
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By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
MDP President Mohamed Nasheed has alleged on Wednesday that members who were believed to not vote for President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the primary were expelled directly by the president in the name of matching with the election commission's registry.
Nasheed, who is set to run for MDP’s presidential primary next month, last Wednesday also questioned the party's membership registry and made allegations. In a tweet today, he made another allegation directly targeting President Solih.
In Nasheed’s tweet:
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MDP is based on free and fair elections
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To do so, there should be an authentic list of voters prepared beforehand
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Nasheed accused President Solih of expelling more than 39,000 members from MDP in the name of cleaning up the registry
"MDP is about free and fair elections. Integral to this is a pre-decided voter list. But Pres Solih has expelled over 39k members from MDP in the past year. While the list needed cleaning up, he has removed all the original party members less likely to vote for him," he said in his tweet.
President Solih and Nasheed, who are contesting in MDP’s presidential primary, have already started campaigning. According to Nasheed, holding the primary on the existing registry will not be fair.
The party has decided to allow time to those who have been dropped from the party's list due to the presence of their names in the list of other parties to re-enter the party. Once such members complete their membership forms again, they will be allowed to submit their nomination papers to the Election Commission, the party said.
According to party sources, the party now has a valid registry. The party also issued a statement on the same Wednesday, expressing regret over Nasheed's statement that their registry had been rigged.
Voting for election of MDP chairperson that was held in May and the constituency elections held in April last year, both had worked under the then existingparty registry. There were over 93,000 members in the party's registry then.
MDP’s Deputy Chairperson Ibrahim Waheed (Iburey) said on Wednesday:
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At that time, the 225 people in the registry were elected to the councils and WDC by contesting from other parties and independents
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Around 17,000 voters are in other parties; around 24,000 are not registered with any party
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After cleaning up the registry, there are currently around 58,000 voters in the party
After Fayyaz Ismail became the chairperson, the National Assembly decided to follow his promise and cleared the registry in May. The decision was taken because some of the members had joined other parties, according to MDP. Therefore, it was decided that 39,000 people should be excluded by aligning it with the election commission's mandate. They were given a three-month window at the time.
