Zahid Rameez drops out of parliamentary race

Former council member of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Zahid Rameez has dropped out of running for the Central Hithadhoo seat in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The decision – which came just three weeks short of the elections – was announced via Zahid’s official campaign page. The post has also been shared via his personal Facebook account.

Zahid wrote that despite his decision to drop out of the race, he will not be endorsing any of the other parliamentary candidates for the constituency.

He said he intended to initiate communications with the Elections Commission to officially withdraw his name.

Zahid was originally handpicked as PPM’s candidate for the Central Hithadhoo constituency for the upcoming parliamentary elections. PPM later withdrew support for Zahid and announced it will be backing Jumhoory Party (JP)’s candidate for the constituency.

Following PPM’s decision, Zahid had applied to contest as an independent candidate.

He resigned from PPM’s council and left PPM on March 8, declaring that the Interim Leader of PNC, Abdul Raheem Abdulla and “a few people under his control”, using the power vacuum left in the wake of Leader of PPM, ex-President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s arrest, had initiated a personal agenda and “hijacked” both PPM and PNC.