The main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has published the voters' list for the presidential primary. The permanent list was issued after excluding the names of 459 names from the preliminary list after considering the complaints.
The voters’ list published by MDP in December 2022 contained the names of 57,714 members. However, the Elections Commission of Maldives (ECM) stated that its official registry shows that 57,255 members are registered to the party. Therefore, the 459 names from the list were excluded from the list.
MDP received 905 complaints regarding the voters’ list, including complaints regarding 683 individuals who were previously registered to MDP but are now not registered to any party and 212 individuals who are registered to other parties.
Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has accused his closest associates of being removed from the MDP register. Responding to the allegations, Vice Chairperson Waheed assured no one had been removed from the party register based on their preference for the presidential candidate.
MDP has announced that the primary election to determine the candidate for the upcoming presidential election will be held on January 28. In addition to Nasheed, incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is also contesting in the primary.