400 MDP reps in atolls to prepare manifesto

MDP officials left for islands spread over 78 constituencies on Thursday to prepare their manifesto for the upcoming presidential elections.

Speaking at a press conference held at MDP’s office on Thursday, deputy chairperson Ibrahim Waheed briefed about the party's efforts to prepare the manifesto.

"The number of people travelling from Male is close to 400. Then there will be another 600, 700 people from the atolls who will join them," he said.

"Therefore, over the next three days, thousands of MDP members will be involved in the activities to gather information on the manifesto in rural areas of the country, increase party members and participate in other activities."

According to Ibrahim, the key elements involved in these activities are:

Members of parliament will also start their journey to their respective constituencies after Thursday’s session, Ibrahim said. On Thursday morning, he said, 80 delegates left for the islands.

"In the next three days, as mentioned, once again, there will be a massive movement across the country," Ibrahim said.

On Wednesday, Nasheed initiated the process of forming a new political party.

Asked by a reporter if the sudden start of trips to the islands was due to this, chairperson Fayyaz Ismail said that it was planned a long time ago. These trips were delayed to this weekend due to bad weather, he said.

Fayyaz said that perhaps Fikuregge Dhirun faction announced the formation of a political party because MDP’s journey was planned.

The party has maintained that even if Fikuregge Dhirun emerges as a party, MDP will not be affected and it can win the presidential election in a single round. "We have no intention of taking action against Nasheed at this stage," the party had also said in a statement.