Solih wins the MDP Primaries with 61 percent

The elections are upon us as the Elections Commission (EC) announced important dates for the 2023 Presidential election of the Maldives and candidates from competing parties have officially started their campaign trips.

However, one of the most heated primary elections so far this year took place on 28th January 2023 as the current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and former President Mohamed Nasheed competed against each other for the Presidential candidate position for the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) for the upcoming Presidential election. While the votes were taken across the Maldives on Saturday, the 28th January.

With over 57,000 members from MDP voting to choose their candidate for the upcoming election, the current president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won by a significant difference as he received 24,000 votes while the opponent, President Mohamed Nasheed received 15, 000 votes.

In addition to the significant difference in the number of votes the candidates received, there was also a major difference in the supporting demographics. The results of the votes show that smaller islands such as the islands of Vaavu Atoll, Faafu Atoll, Meemu Atoll, Alif Alif Atoll and Alif Dhaal Atoll voted for Solih while Nasheed got more support from major cities such as islands in the Southern part of the Maldives.

Some of the highlighted points from the votes counted also included the large number of support the President Solih received from some islands as he had 100 percent support from 7 different islands.

Satuday’s election was also faced with major disruptions which led to some ballot boxes being forced to temporarily close and accusations being made regarding four ballot boxes being broken into. While the opposing party is speculating that the numbers were rigged, MDP has officially chosen their candidate for the upcoming Presidential elections.