PNC rejects candidacy for Majlis primary for creating ‘strife’

The main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) has rejected the candidacy filed by one of its members for the party’s primaries for the upcoming parliamentary elections, after accusing him of creating strife within the party.

Moosa Faisal, who applied to run in the PNC primaries for the L. Maavah seat, received a letter from the party informing him of the decision on Sunday.

The letter, signed by PNC’s chairperson Abdul Raheem Abdulla, reads that Faisal is not eligible to run in the elections on behalf of the Progressive Congress coalition, citing that he had tried to create strife among the coalition’s members in the wake of the 2023 presidential elections.

The party also sent a similar letter to a second candidate; Hussain Arban, who applied to run for the Lh. Naifaru seat. The letter reads that he was ineligible to run in the elections because he hadn’t sufficiently served the party.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, the leader of PNC, had run in the 2023 presidential elections with the endorsement of the Progressive Congress coalition’s then-leader, former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom. But less than a week after he took office, Yameen left the coalition and initiated efforts to form his own party – the People’s National Front (PNF).

Yameen’s aides allege that President Muizzu had cut off ties with Yameen after he won the election. They also allege that the former president had been deliberately sidelined from the coalition.

In the wake of the move, several members of the PPM and PNC left the coalition to sign with PNF.

The PNC had originally scheduled the primaries for December 23, but it was later postponed to January 20, and again, to January 27.