MDP says other parties tried to interfere in primary

The primary organising committee held a press conference at the MDP office Sunday morning. The committee said it had received complaints that members of the opposition party and "those who were not related to MDP" were involved in primary affairs.

MDP said on Sunday that people who did not belong to the party tried to influence the party's primary on Saturday and tried to manipulate votes.

"Voting was delayed in Sh. Feevak as two members of PPM entered [the polling booth] with the pass of the representative we had issued to the candidates, claiming to be the representative of the candidate and locked the ballot box saying they would not be allowed to go ahead with the voting," committee chair Ibrahim Waheed said.

Since they did not belong to the party, they were evicted from the polling booth through the police, he said.

"We don't condone these. Other political parties should not try to stop our party's elections. We are also not actively involved in elections of other parties," said Ibrahim Waheed, who is also the deputy chairperson of MDP.

He also claimed that a "very well-known lawyer, who has never been included as a member of the party", went to the centres where some boxes were located in Male and tried to create a ruckus.

"There is evidence of that. This is a new phenomenon in the party elections. People who are not related to the party tried to interfere in this election to a great extent and tried to sabotage the election," he said.

When asked which lawyer it was, Ibrahim Waheed said, "Mohamed Nishan Ibrahim". Nishan was involved in the campaign of party president Mohamed Nasheed who faced defeat to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the primary.