Ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Saturday hailed president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's leadership and expressed confidence to pulling off the presidential elections in 2018.
Top PPM lawmaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla told reporters Saturday after over 300 new members signed for the party said that the party's primary focus is to ensure success in the upcoming local elections slated for January 14.
He further said that PPM would win 80 percent of the seats in the election.
Criticizing the main opposition, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Raheem said that the majority of the opposition who want to be elected are ineligible for to contest. He said that the opposition candidates may even fail to show up when the time comes, but that PPM will always work in the spirit of competition.
"They only have the same type of people. They always have some previous convictions. The law states that your police record must be clean for you to be eligible, so a lot of these candidates may not even show up when the time comes. But PPM will always compete as if there is a fierce competition," Raheem said.
While hinting that the target was for PPM to win 80% of the seats in this election, Raheem said that if that target was achieved, then it would be an easy task to win the 2018 Presidential elections.
