Nasheed, Qasim and Nazim's attempt to back common candidate fails

Senior officials from The Democrats, Jumhoory Party (JP) and Maldives National Party (MNP) which has previously agreed to back a common candidate in the presidential elections slated for September 9^th, are now reporting their failure to follow through as agreed, just 39 days ahead of the election.

JP’s leader and presidential candidate Qasim Ibrahim, MNP’s leader and presidential candidate Mohamed Nazim, and Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed from The Democrats met at JP headquarters on July 19^th. In a press conference that followed, the three individuals announced their consensus on the three parties to back a candidate agreeable to all of them.

“We have a formula for all of us to produce one candidate for the presidential race,” announced Qasim.

Sun has learned the parties, despite the announcement, have failed to see through after sessions of unfruitful discussions.

One of the biggest hurdles, in this trajectory, had been the biggest opposition party, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)’s refusal to agree on a candidate other than their jailed leader, former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom.

“They refused to agree to a choice other than Yameen. Extremely likely Yameen will not be able to contest. With this choice in place, there was no way to move forward together,” a senior official from JP said.

Therefore, the three parties are now working to individually contest the elections. The campaigns of The Democrats’ presidential candidate, Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb and MNP’s presidential candidate Nazim are well underway across the nation. Although the campaign activities of JP’s Qasim are less extensive in comparison, a senior official from the party confirmed his intention to run in the election.

“Qasim assures his name will be on the ballot papers even if there are no other names,” the senior official from JP added.

Meanwhile, a senior official from MNP confirmed Nazim will contest the elections while his running mate will be announced sometime this week.

While opposition parties have epically failed to agree on a common candidate – the candidacy form of PPM’s candidate Yameen was submitted to the Elections Commission (EC) on Tuesday morning. His running mate is former vice president Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who was his running mate in 2013’s election.

Officials from both JP and MNP who talked to Sun believe the parties will not be able to back a common candidate in the first round of the election. The officials said the discussions on backing a common candidate will resume if the election proceeds to a second round.

With mere days for the election, the most extensive campaign activities have been undertaken by main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s candidate, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih who is seeking a second term in office. He is backed by a coalition comprising of Adhaalath Party and Maldives Development Alliance. Together, the parties have been undertaking campaign trips to various islands across the nation.