Nasheed offered to support Qasim, if he ‘buys’ 13 MPs

Former president Mohamed Nasheed had offered to support Jumhoory Party (JP)’s leader Qasim Ibrahim in the upcoming presidential election, if he agreed to “buy” over a dozen MPs for his new party – The Democrats.

After Democrats named the Addu MP Ilyas Labeeb as its presidential candidate, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih named MP Mohamed Aslam, another lawmaker from the populous southern city, as his running mate on Saturday.

Top officials from Democrats - former president’s office minister Mohamed Shifaz, Hussain Amr, and MP Ali Azim – visited Qasim at JP headquarters the same day.

They pitched a proposal from Nasheed; that they would bow out of the election and endorse Qasim’s candidacy, in exchange for 13 MPs.

A close aide to Qasim, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the JP leader rejected the proposal.

“When they asked Qasim to give 13 MPs to Democrats, he said it would be better to spend money on the campaign, rather than on that. He rejected it outright,” said the source.

JP informed the Democrats of Qasim’s decision the same day, after which Ilyas named Amr as his running mate, and filed his candidacy.

Nasheed had reportedly tried to convince a top official from the opposition PPM-PNC coalition to become Ilyas’ running mate, and approached several MPs. None of them accepted the offer.

A source from Democrats also confirmed Nasheed’s proposal to Qasim, adding that Nasheed had also presented a list of potential MPs who could be convinced to join his party.

An MP from the main ruling MDP said that Nasheed has been approaching multiple MPs in his bid to increase his party’s influence at the parliament.