Nasheed concedes defeat, but refuses to back President Solih

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) leader and Parliament speaker, former president Mohamed Nasheed conceded defeat to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Monday, two days after he lost the MDP presidential primary.

President Solih won the election with 61 percent of votes. He won 24,572 votes while Nasheed won 15,631 votes – 39 percent.

In a message on the MDP national council group on Whatsapp on Monday morning, Nasheed said President Solih won the election by a “small margin”.

However, he refused to back President Solih, and said he planned on running a separate political movement within MDP under the moniker “Fikuregge Dhirun”.

“President Solih will lose many of the votes he purportedly received if we set aside the election rigging. But I estimate that with looking at the voter’s list, President Solih may have won by a small margin,” he said.

Nasheed said President Solih will not win the presidential election for MDP.

“I propose relaunching MDP’s branches in all islands under the moniker ‘Fikuregge Dhirun’, reinstate over 39,000 members removed from MDP, and for all of us to make a decision,” he said.

Nasheed said the presidential candidate that will be supported by ‘Fikuregge Dhirun’ will be decided later.

It will be easier to support a candidate who agrees to a shift to a parliamentary system ahead of the presidential election.

President Solih had invited Nasheed to work together with him during his victory rally Saturday. However, Nasheed refuses to support him.