MDP, Maldivian reach out-of-court deal to settle debt

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the national airline, Maldivian have reached an out-of-court settlement for the political party to pay an outstanding MVR 5.6 million to the airline.

With this out-of-court dispute resolution, the lawsuit filed by the airline at the Civil Court has been recanted.

In the civil lawsuit, Maldivian sought to claim for outstanding payments the political party owed for tickets acquired on credit for scheduled and chartered flights. The current opposition party owed a total of MVR 5,629,861 to the national airline, which it had not settled till date.

The airline sought to recover outstanding money rightfully owed to it from the party within a seven-day period.

Civil Court recognized MDP had paid a lump sum of MVR 1,000,000 out of the outstanding total, as the first installment, following their settlement agreement on June 13^th this year.

Maldivian warned the lawsuit would be refiled at the court if MDP failed to honor the settlement agreement as per the agreed timeframe. The airline, thus, requested from the Civil Court to recant its case on the condition it retains right to file the lawsuit again if the political party failed to pay as per the out-of-court agreement.

In their initial agreement, MDP agreed to settle payments within 48 hours after acquiring the airline’s services, which however, the party failed to act upon despite multiple notices sent by Maldivian to expedite settling the payment.

Maldivian later warned the party it would seek legal recourse for remedy if the party failed to honor its end of the agreement.

The outstanding money in question is the trips undertaken by MDP across the Maldives during the last presidential election.