Ali Azim congratulates Adam Azim: Will work to ensure win

Ali Azim has congratulated incumbent Male’ Mayor Adam Azim who won against him in main opposition MDP’s primary held on Friday to elect candidates who will contest April’s local council election on the party’s ticket.

The most anticipated in race in Friday’s primary, contested by 154 candidates in total, was the Male’ mayoral ticket.

Adam Azim won the Male’ mayoral ticket after competing against former Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim in a heated rivalry.

Ali Azim was among MDP members who defected the party in 2023 ahead of the presidential elections and to form The Democrats, campaigning against the MDP and its candidate, then-President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. The Democrats members rejoined MDP in 2025, citing they believe “a strong opposition is the best way to win the local council election, improve Maldives’ future, uphold an accountable state, and restore the waning faith in a competitive multi-party system.”

Over 5,000 MDP members were eligible to vote in the primary from Male’ constituencies. While 17 ballot boxes in the primary were allocated for Male’ constituencies, Adam Azim emerged as the winner in the majority of these boxes. 

Following his defeat, Ali Azim made a phone call to Adam Azim on Friday night, congratulating him on his win. He expressed he wished to see MDP succeed, while assuring he would undertake all efforts possible to ensure MDP’s wins the mayoral seat in the local council election.

While Male’ mayoral seat is a competitive electoral post, there have been concerns regarding divisions within MDP in a repetition of the events which unfolded just ahead of the 2023’s presidential election.

However, MDP’s leadership expressed confidence that such an incident would not be repeated.