MDP Chairperson supports Nasheed’s call for union

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail has supported former President Mohamed Nasheed’s call for a union between the party and The Democrats.

Nasheed in a post on X said, the best course of action for the Maldives would be a union between MDP and The Democrats. He however, did not make any further statements beyond this.

In response to this, while speaking with Sun Online, Fayyaz said MDP was ready to work alongside any party willing to support its cause of constitutional preservation and administrative reform.

He further revealed such a decision had been made earlier, and had extended invitation to The Democrats and other political parties to work with MDP.

“We had received an answer from the party back then, but we have not been able to move forward with it so far,” Fayyaz commented.

While highlighting the leadership shuffle within The Democrats, Fayyaz commented that the reason why unified efforts had not begun was due to lack of support for it from The Democrats.

“I believe President Nasheed’s tweet was directed at The Democrats, and we are ready to work with anyone in our cause for administrative reform. That is our party’s stand,” the MDP Chairperson added.

Both MDP and The Democrats had been founded with the involvement of Nasheed.

Nasheed exited MDP in 2023 after the party’s general members split into two factions; one that endorsed Nasheed and another that was aligned behind former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

After Nasheed faced defeat at MDP’s presidential election primary, his supporters had heavily criticized the party before their exit to form The Democrats. Shortly after his supporters exited MDP to form the new party, Nasheed earlier on June 21, 2023 exited the party citing it was in his best interest.

The Democrats fielded its own candidate at the presidential race in 2023, but managed to secure just 7 percent of the total votes. The party however, refused to endorse MDP in the run-off election.

In December 2023, Nasheed agreed an invite to become the Secretary General of the Climate Vulnerable Forum which was formed between the Maldives and 11 other countries, and announced his decision to step away from politics.

He however, in January this year, said he did not fully step away from Maldivian politics.

In a post he made earlier in January, Nasheed said he was not opposed to any political party and said he always wished for MDP remain strong. He also added the recently founded The Democrats provided an ideal opportunity for Maldivian youths to get involved in politics.