Over 17,000 members of other parties in MDP’s registry

Ruling Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Deputy Chairperson Ibrahim Waheed (Iburey), on Wednesday, stated that the party’s registry publicized for last year’s internal election comprises of 17,156 individuals who are members of other political parties.

Iburey made the remark while speaking to Sun to refute the allegations that MDP’s registry has been mixed-up.

While MDP’s primary for next year’s presidential election has been announced this week – the party’s leader, Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed in a letter to the party’s Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail said that an internal election held while the party’s registry remains mixed up will not be fair.

Clearing up the allegations, Iburey said that the party’s registry consisted of a lot of people that belonged to other political parties before the resolution on clearing the registry was put forth to the National Council; an issue which was informed to the members of the party as well. He added that a three-month window was granted to fix the issue.

Iburey shared a document submitted to MDP’s National Council before the resolution on clearing the membership was submitted to the council.

The document states that when the eligible list of voters for the internal elections of the party was publicized on April 21, 2021 – it was noted that the list comprised of many belonging to other political; the details of which had been shared in the document. They include:

•          6,357 members of PPM
•          3,788 members of JP
•          1,761 members of NDA
•         1,211 members of Adhaalath Party
•          1,048 members of MTD
•         1,029 members of MRM
•          875 members of MSLDO
•          698 members of PNC
•          389 members of DRP
•          24,033 individuals not registered to any political parties

However, after over 39,000 members were removed from MDP’s registry – many general members have complained alleging that those removed included people who were admitted to other parties ‘without their knowledge’ via fake forms.

Nasheed, in a tweet on Wednesday, said that those removed from MDP’s registry were non-supporters of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Nasheed said that MDP’s most important pillar is independent and fair elections.

“President Solih has removed over 39,000 members from the party. The list needs to be cleared. But he removed members who would not vote for him,” Nasheed said.

While MDP’s registry has become a heated topic over the past few days – the party has urged those who have been removed from the party before registering with another political party to submit their complaints to reinstate their membership.

The main ruling party’s primary for next year’s presidential election was announced on Sunday, at a time the party has been divided into two factions – in a major internal conflict. One faction rally behind Nasheed, while the other, President Solih.