In Utheem, Pres Solih asks to change 15-year results

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has asked the people of HA. Utheem for a majority win for his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in the upcoming presidential election – something the main ruling party hasn’t achieved the past 15 years.

He made the appeal during a campaign rally in Utheem on Wednesday.

Addressing the rally, the president said that he had been awash with a sense of national pride upon arrival in Utheem – the birth place of Sulṭaan al-Ghaazee Muhammad Thakurufaanu al-A'uẓam – who successfully found the Portuguese occupation in the 1500s.

He highlighted on the need to honor and celebrate his jihad.

President Solih said that Utheem has always been home to a peace-loving people.

He said that though the main opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) holds a majority at the island’s council, it has always cooperated with the government for the island’s development.

The president said that his administration has fulfilled 90 percent of its pledges, and has run many projects in Utheem as well.

“I want to you to come out on September 9 and change the image that has been in place for the last 15 years,” he said.

The president said that his administration has given no room to question its work.

“It has been tested. I don’t see any reason why you should vote for anyone else,” he said.

The president said that his administration has guaranteed political freedoms as well as the freedom of the press over the last five years.