Solih and Nasheed mend ties, eye potential alliance with Yameen

Former Maldivian presidents Mohamed Nasheed and Ibrahim Mohamed Solih voiced not only willingness but also a desire to work together with their one-time greatest political rival, former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Wednesday, as they spoke to reporters after a sit-down to mend their own fractured ties.

The sit-down comes after tensions between the two led to a deep rift within the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in 2023, back when it had been in power. This rift is widely believed to have been the reason why Solih lost re-election later that year.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Nasheed and Solih said they had set aside their differences and past criticism of each other, and would be working together for the upcoming elections.

They were questioned by reporters regarding whether they were considering a potential alliance with Yameen, who had backed President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s 2023 presidential campaign, but parted ways with him soon after to form his own political party, the People’s National Front (PNF).

Solih responded that it wasn’t off the table.

“We also worked with President Maumoon too, after all,” piped in Nasheed, referring to when the MDP partnered with former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom for its successful 2018 presidential bid, after having defeated his 30-year rule in 2008 – fulfilling the very purpose for which the party was founded.

Solih said he believes they can find a way to resolve the differences between the MDP and Yameen, and work together.

“There’s a lot of work to be done given the current plight of this nation. Therefore, I believe that having some sort of input from President Yameen in this is something that we desire,” he said.

In 2018, Nasheed backed a successful campaign to hoist Solih to power, after he was ruled out of contention due to a conviction that was later overturned.

But tensions flared between Nasheed and Solih as it drew closer to the 2023 presidential election, especially after the former lost the MDP presidential ticket to the latter in January that year.

The rivalry between them created a rift within the MDP, culminating into Nasheed and those loyal to him leaving the party in June 2023, to form a new party, the Democrats.

Following the formation, Nasheed famously declared that he would “dismantle” the MDP, a party that he had helped found.

This rift is widely believed to be one of the main reasons for MDP’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election.

But in June this year, Nasheed and his allies dissolved the Democrats and rejoined the MDP.

The decision by Nasheed to rejoin the MDP had come with the Maldives set to hold two key elections; the local council election in 2026, and the presidential elections in 2028 – the latter of which Nasheed had said he was considering contesting.

The decision by Nasheed to rejoin the MDP increased the rivalry within the party for its presidential ticket. The party's former chairperson Fayyaz Ismail has already announced he plans to contest in the party’s presidential primary, while sources confirm that both Solih and the party’s president Abdulla Shahid were also campaigning for the ticket.

Nasheed and Fayyaz later appeared to have formed an alliance, while Solih and Shahid appeared to have formed a similar one.

But at Wednesday’s press briefing, Solih and Nasheed said they had both agreed to set aside talk of presidential candidacy for now.

During a Democrats rally shortly after his exit from the MDP back in 2023, Nasheed called Solih to release Yameen, who had been in prison at the time on a money laundering conviction that was later overturned.

The conviction had disqualified Yameen from contesting the 2023 presidential elections. Though he initially asked the then-opposition PPM-PNC (Progressive Party of Maldives-People’s National Congress) coalition to boycott the election, he later endorsed President Muizzu, who won the vote taken by the coalition’s joint senate to produce a backup candidate.

Yameen was transferred home on October 1, 2023 – a day after President Muizzu won the presidential election.

But less than a week after President Muizzu took office, Yameen left the ruling PPM-PNC and initiated efforts to form a new party, the PNF.

He later grew increasingly vocal in his criticism of President Muizzu’s administration.

While Solih, Nasheed and Yameen have a common rival in President Muizzu, Yameen had ruled out any potential alliance with the MDP during a 2024 interview with RaajjeTV, stating that the fundamental values of the MDP and the PNF were just too different