News Desk
MALE’ — Former President Mohamed Nasheed has won the Maldivian Democratic Party chairpersonship election by a large margin, defeating Galolhu South MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem in a vote held across 241 ballot boxes on Friday.
The party had 48,912 eligible voters. Boxes were placed across the Maldives and one in Sri Lanka. The MDP has not yet announced official results, but counts from boxes tallied so far show Nasheed leading by a substantial gap. He has invited supporters to gather at Artificial Beach tonight to mark the win.
Nasheed returned to the MDP after a period away, having left before the last presidential election to help form The Democrats. He ran on a platform he called “Bodu Badhal,” or Big Change, promising to rebuild and strengthen the party.
The campaign was run in close alliance with former Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail, who led the effort to bring Nasheed back to the party and played a central role in the chairpersonship bid. Fayyaz, posting on social media after the result became clear, said seeing the yellow ranks mobilised across the country in a short space of time was a source of great pride.
“MDP members have proven they are ready for big change. With the vote you gave President Nasheed, the work of bringing Bodu Badhal to this country has begun today,” Fayyaz wrote. He added that the next task was to defeat the current government as a united front. “With strong, unified ranks, we will accomplish that.”
The two have said earlier that their broader plan is to field Fayyaz as the MDP’s presidential candidate in 2028 and return the party to government. They have also outlined a proposal to restructure how the country is governed, separating the role of head of state from head of government, with both positions elected directly by the public rather than through a parliamentary system.
Nasheed has said he would support Fayyaz as the executive head of government and has indicated his own interest in the role of head of state under that arrangement.
Image: Hussain Shafiu on X.
