PNC Majlis primaries postponed to Jan 27

The main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC)’s primaries for the parliamentary elections have been postponed again, this time by an additional week.

The PNC had originally scheduled the primaries for December 23, but it was later postponed to January 20.

The party announced on Monday that the primaries have now been postponed to January 27, as it verifies the candidacy list.

The postponement of the primaries comes after the party lost the Male’ mayoral election held last weekend.

The election was won by main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s candidate Adam Azim, who beat PNC’s candidate, former attorney general Aishath Azima Shakoor by a huge margin.

PNC’s chairperson Abdul Raheem Abdulla (Adhurey) said that the party suffered the loss because it failed to maintain strong relations with grassroot members. He vowed to rectify the issue and secure wins in future elections.

PNC’s leader, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu had previously expressed confidence the PPM-PNC coalition will be able to secure a supermajority in the Parliament – mimicking the feat achieved by MDP in 2019, when it had been in power.