News Desk
MALE’ — Mohamed Nasheed said on Sunday that whoever holds the MDP chairpersonship should not contest the party’s presidential primary while still in the role, a position that carries pointed implications given that he currently occupies the chair and has previously declared support for former Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail’s presidential bid.
Speaking at a press conference at the MDP office, Nasheed was measured and deliberate. “It is not appropriate for someone serving as chairperson to contest the presidential primary while remaining in that position,” he said, when asked whether the chairperson could stand for the party’s presidential ticket.
The statement is notable less for what it says about party rules than for how it was said. Nasheed, whose political career has been defined by instinct and improvisation, sounded on Sunday like someone thinking carefully about institutional norms, separating the office from the ambition. For a man who has worn every hat in Maldivian politics at one time or another, it was an unusually statesmanlike register.
Fayyaz is the only candidate who has so far declared for the MDP’s presidential primary. Nasheed has previously said he supports Fayyaz’s candidacy. The two men have been at the centre of what the party calls its Bodu Badhal, or Big Change, project, which envisions Fayyaz as a future executive president and Nasheed in a separate head of state role under a reformed governance structure.
Nasheed also pushed back on reports that his relationship with Fayyaz has soured. “My relationship with Fayyaz is very good. I was away for a week and did not see him during that time. I met him yesterday. I do not see our relationship as having deteriorated in any way, and there is no reason for it to.”
The clarification was necessary because the rumours have been circulating with some persistence. Whether Sunday’s press conference fully puts them to rest is another matter.
What is clear is that Nasheed, freshly elected as MDP chairperson, is now speaking with a degree of institutional caution that has not always characterised his public appearances. Whether that reflects a genuine evolution or simply the discipline that comes with holding a party office again, remains to be seen.
