President Solih winning primary by landslide difference, Nasheed’s MDP reign reaches an end

The results so far show President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to have secured a landslide win in ruling main party, Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) presidential primary.

While half of the votes have been counted at present – the results show that President Solih secured 64 percent of the votes. His opponent candidate, MDP’s leader and Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, meanwhile, secured 36 percent of the votes.

A total of 57,255 people were eligible to vote in today’s primary. Approximately 30,000 people casted their votes.

The voting kicked off at 9:00am this morning. Most ballot boxes closed as scheduled, at 5:00pm in the evening. Throughout the voting, several disturbances were reported across different voting stations in Male’ area and atolls.

This promoted some of the polling stations to temporarily halt voting until order was restored. Five people from three islands were arrested for disturbances at polling stations.

With this election, Nasheed’s long reign at MDP reaches an end. Nasheed has reigned over MDP since the party’s inception in 2003. This election would mark the first time another individual has faced off Nasheed and won an internal election.

Those who have previously gone against Nasheed were met with the same fate; dismissal from the party.

They include MDP’s first leader Ibrahim Ismail, MDP’s former leaders Dr. Ibrahim Didi, Dr. Mohamed Munavvar in addition to Reeko Moosa Manik.

However, 20 long years of Nasheed’s MDP reign is now at an end.

With today’s result, President Solih will take full control over the party. The election marked as a history-changing event for MDP.