PPM opposes Nasheed's common candidate invite

Opposition PPM-PNC coalition has rejected speaker Mohamed Nasheed's invitation to opposition leader Abdulla Yameen to work together to defeat the incumbent government by stepping back and fielding a common candidate for the upcoming presidential election. 

"I think both of us [Yameen and myself] should not contest this election. Instead, we should work hard together and get what the people want," Nasheed said, at the founding rally of his breakaway The Democrats party at Ghiyasuddin School on Wednesday.

PNC president Abdul Raheem Abdulla, who runs the opposition coalition, said there was no doubt that Yameen would contest this year's presidential election despite the former president's 11-year jail sentence. Abdul Raheem rejected Nasheed's views.

"The people believe that President Yameen will take over the presidency of Maldives. The people do not believe that any other leader can save the country," he said.

PPM vice president Ahmed Shiyam, who was at The Democrats founding rally, later tweeted that Nasheed was expressing his views, but the PPM-PNC has already selected a candidate and even launched the presidential campaign.

“President Nasheed and the Democrats are a little behind in this election,” he said.

The PPM-PNC has also expressed its dissatisfaction with an article in the latest issue of Nasheed's magazine, Ocean Weekly, titled 'Neither Yameen nor Nasheed, a common candidate'.

Although the opposition maintains Yameen will be able to win his appeal in time and contest the September 9 election, there are legal questions about whether Yameen can actually contest the election. 

The Democrats and the PPM are in talks to work together against the government, but the PPM insists that the negotiations do not cover the election.