Last Update: January 29, 2023, 10:44 AM IST
Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih delivers his national statement as part of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference summit of world leaders on November 1, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. (AFP)
Ibrahim Solih, 60, who assumed office in 2018 for a five-year term, is the 7th President of the Republic of Maldives.
Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Saturday won the presidential election of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Nasheed framed the election as a choice between autocracy and democracy and accused Solih of vote rigging and bribery.
ANI reported that this is the first time in the history of Maldives that a sitting President has again contested in a primary election.
President Solih faces party chairman and parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed, and has so far received 19,096 votes compared to Nasheed’s 12,005. The report said that President Solih got 61 percent of the vote.
President Solih said in his campaign that the MDP would have a future in Maldivian politics by cooperating with other parties. He has repeatedly stated that he will form a coalition with other parties to continue the MDP’s rule, which he calls a “winning formula”.
Despite several challenges, President Solih’s clear victory in Saturday’s election secured him the presidential ticket of the largest political party in the Maldives.
Solih, 60, who assumed office in 2018 for a five-year term, is the 7th President of the Republic of Maldives. He will run for the presidency in the September election.
The animosity between Solih and Nasheed has raised concerns of new turmoil in the island, four years after the Maldives voted former President Abdulla Yameen, who jailed or exiled all his political rivals, supreme. Court judges were arrested and critical and independent media were shut down.
read all breaking news Here