PPM dissolved, removed from political parties' register

The Elections Commission (EC) on Thursday finalized the dissolution of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), which was the ruling party of Maldives from 2013 to 2018.

In an announcement on Thursday afternoon, the EC said that PPM’s senate had completed the formalities for the dissolution of the party as required under Article 30 of Political Parties Act.

The EC said that the PPM has therefore been dissolved and removed from the register of political parties.

PPM’s senate had voted to dissolve the party on December 2, 2024.

The PPM, born out of a power struggle within the leadership of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), officially registered as a political party on October 27, 2011. The party had 34,649 members as of September 19, 2024.

The PPM had been the dominant party in the coalition that propelled President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu to presidency in 2023. But after the incumbent administration came to power, the PPM did not conduct any activities to boost its membership, and saw thousands of members leave the party to join President Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) – which had some 3,000 members at the time.

The PPM and PNC, while two separate political parties, had always operated as one.

The coalition had previously been headed by former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

Yameen had been the PPM-PNC’s original candidate for the 2023 presidential election. However, a criminal conviction – which has since been overturned – disqualified him from contesting the elections.

President Muizzu had been the coalition’s ‘backup’ candidate.

Yameen, who had initially endorsed President Muizzu, left the coalition less than a week into his presidency, and formed his own party, the People’s National Front (PNF).

President Muizzu was later elected as the president of PNC and as the leader of the PPM-PNC coalition.

The PNC is now the largest political party in the Maldives with nearly 69,000 members. However, the increase in PNC’s membership is not without controversy.

It comes amid allegations the party used fraudulent forms to boost its membership in order to get more funding from the state.