'2-3' eliminated candidates give coalition green light, pres says

MDP presidential candidate, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, said on Monday that he is in talks with political parties to form a coalition for the second round of the presidential election and that he has received green light from "two to three" parties. 

Provisional results of Saturday's election 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. 

In an interview with Raajje TV's ‘Fashaa-iru’ on Monday, President Solih said he was confident of winning the second round by recognising the mistakes made in the first round and correcting them.

President Solih said that discussions were held on Sunday and some parties agreed to move forward together.

"There have been some talks with some parties that did not go to the second round yesterday. There are some parties that have given the green signal to go ahead with us. They have not yet officially announced it," he said.

The president said he believes two or three parties will form a coalition with him in the second round. If they do, he will have more hope of winning the second round.

While eight candidates contested Saturday's election, the unsuccessful candidates representing political parties are:

Speaking about the reasons why the opposition PPM-PNC led the Saturday polls and MDP did not win in one round, President Solih said the opposition won the election on the basis of lies spread during the campaign.

The president said he would face a second round after explaining everything that could be revealed about such gossip. The president said he would also disclose the allegations of the sale of the sea area and the presence of foreign troops in Maldives.

"Such lies have been told to the people by the opposition. It is not true. We have not worked hard enough during the campaign to clarify these doubts to the people. That is the biggest challenge this time," he said.

"Hopefully, we will explain everything that can be revealed in this round”.

Among the reasons for the failure of the election in one round, the President then mentioned, administrative negligence. The president noted that many constituencies where people were expected to vote have not been brought out to vote. The president said he would contest the second round after looking at how things happened and correcting the things that need to be corrected.