Nasheed urges MDP to abandon Solih, form MDP-PPM unity govt

Former MDP president and Democrats party founder Mohamed Nasheed on Sunday urged his former colleagues at the ruling party to abandon their candidate, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, and form a unity government with the main opposition PPM-PNC.

Provisional results show main opposition PPM-PNC's Dr Mohamed Muizz leading the polls with 46%, while President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih secured 39%. 

To win outright, a candidate needs more than 50% of the votes. From the preliminary results, it is certain that a runoff between the top two contenders will take place on September 30.

Many are now waiting to see which camp the Democrats, whose candidate Ilyas Labeeb won third place with 7% of the votes, will end up in the runoff. 

Nasheed said in a post via his unofficial X account that the MDP must seriously think about distancing the party from President Solih and form a unity government with PPM.

MDP National Council can decide to withdraw its support to Raees Solih and agree to form a unity govt with all parties. 

“Dr Muizz will be the president,” Nasheed said.

The main concern by pro-government and Democrats supporters is that if Muizz comes to power, there is a possibility of impunity for religious extremism in Maldives. They allege links between Muizz and a religious extremist organisation called Jamiyyat al-Salaf.

Both Muizz and PPM-PNC coalition have denied the links.

Nasheed on Sunday expressed his views on the matter in a post on X.

The former president who quit the ruling MDP in June to found the Democrats said he did not believe there was any fear of a government that would give space to extremism and implement it more than it had in the past five years.

With the MDP not winning as expected in yesterday's elections, some supporters have asked the Democrats to work together in the second round. However, neither Nasheed nor the president have officially commented on the matter.