Undeterred by mayoral loss, PNC eyes parliamentary win

The ruling Peoples’ National Congress (PNC) claims that the party is not disappointed with its defeat in the Male City Mayoral election and will produce a double result in the upcoming parliamentary elections with the lessons learned from the election, the party said on Saturday.

Provisional results show that the opposition MDP candidate Adam Azim is in the lead. The closest contender is PNC candidate Azima Shukoor.

As per the latest results:

The results of the other candidates are as follows:

So it is now certain that Azim, who is leading by a margin of more than 2,500 votes, will win the mayoral seat. The two rival candidates, Azima and The Democrats' candidate Mohammed Saif Fathih, have also congratulated Azim.

PPM/PNC leadership, and Local Government Minister of this government Adam Shareef told Atoll Times that neither the party nor the government are disappointed with the outcome of the mayoral election compared to the turnout.

"This is not a worrying and disappointing result. With the lessons learned from this election, we will contest the upcoming parliamentary elections even stronger," Shareef said.

"We will produce double the results of the mayoral election”.

The MDP has said that the message given by the people on Saturday is that they are dissatisfied with the government's policies. Shareef said he did not believe the result was a victory for the MDP. He described the vote as a vote based on Azim's previous positions and status.

54,680 people were eligible to vote in the election. However, only 17,000 of them voted, the Election Commission said.

Shareef cited the low turnout as one of the reasons he was not worried about the outcome of Saturday's election.

He said Azima would have won the election if even 60% of the people voted. Given the proportion of eligible voters, less than half of whom did not vote, he said he did not believe it was disappointing to lose such an election.

According to Adam Shareef:

The incumbent President Mohammed Muizzu won the previous council elections by a wide margin. Adam Shareef said the PPM/PNC won that time by focusing on the campaign while in opposition and doing enough work. However, this election coincided with the first days of the government, he said, adding that the government was working hard to achieve the things they had promised the people in the 14 weeks of the government.