MDP releases final voters list after removing 459

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has released the final voter list of those who are eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential primary.

The final list was publicized after addressing the complaints submitted to the temporary list issued by the party in December. During this process, a total of 459 people were removed from the temporary list.

A total of 57,714 were listed as eligible in the previous list, which is a significantly low number from over 93,000 members who had been eligible to vote in the internal elections held back in May last year.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and the leader of MDP, Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed are contesting in the primary.

After the chairperson’s election, over 39,000 members were removed as part of efforts to make the party’s membership register align with the Elections Commission’s register.

Nasheed alleges this to be an attempt to fix the upcoming vote.

However, MDP’s deputy chairperson Ibrahim Waheed (Iburey) denied the allegation, stating that only members registered to other parties were removed.

The upcoming primary – scheduled for January 28 - has deepened the divide within MDP.