News Desk
MALE’, Maldives — The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party won back a parliamentary seat it had lost to the government on Saturday, as former Addu City Mayor Abdulla Sodiq defeated the ruling People’s National Congress candidate in the Addu Hithadhoo North by-election.
The result is a setback for President Dr Mohamed Muizzu’s PNC, which has faced a difficult few months. In April, the government lost a referendum on consolidating local and national elections. It has now lost the seat it held in Addu Hithadhoo North as well.
Sodiq won six of the seven ballot boxes in the count. The one box he lost was in Male’. Of the 4,121 registered voters, 2,563 turned out, a rate of 62 per cent. Voting took place at Dharumavantha School in Male’ and Hithadhoo School in Addu City.
His opponent was Ahmed Saeed, a former councillor for Hithadhoo Moolekede ward, who stepped in as the PNC candidate after the man the party originally nominated pulled out. That man, Mohamed Sinan, was the sitting MP whose removal from office triggered the by-election. The Supreme Court unseated him on 12 April after ruling that he had disqualified himself by failing to repay a 3.8 million rufiyaa loan from Maldives Islamic Bank.
The road to the ballot for both candidates was unusual. Sodiq ran unopposed within the MDP, with no other member coming forward during the party’s nomination window. The PNC’s process was messier. Sinan was first confirmed as the party’s candidate before withdrawing, handing the ticket to Saeed.
With the seat returning to the MDP, the opposition now holds 13 seats in the People’s Majlis. The PNC retains 74, a supermajority that leaves it in firm control of parliament regardless of Saturday’s result.
