Nasheed: Amending laws to make 30 percent of votes enough to become president important

MDP's Leader, Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed has stated that amending the laws to allow the candidate securing 30 percent of the votes in a presidential election to be elected as the president can be useful.

Speaking at the second meeting of the fourth session of MDP's National Council held at Iskandar School last night – Nasheed said that the people's call for an MDP administration to always govern in the Maldives should be listened to closely.

"Have to listen closely to the voice of all Maldivian citizens calling for an MDP administration to remain in the next five years and even the five years after that," he had said.

As per the current laws, a candidate can only be elected for the post of president if 50 percent of votes are secured in the elections. If 50 percent of the votes are not secured by a candidate – the two candidates with the highest votes will have to compete in a second round of voting.

Nasheed has recently stated he does not believe MDP can remain in power if Maldives does not switch to a parliamentary system of governance. It is likely that he is proposing such an amendment to the law in order to obstruct any other political party apart from MDP to come to power.