Prime opposition party Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) has confirmed the road map for presidential election 2018 will be concluded with the declaration presidential candidate by May 2018.
The party is expected to commence their 2018 presidential election campaign around the same time as well. MDP's Chairperson Hassan Latheef, who spoke with media on Sunday confirmed the party will be opening up a primary during March 2018, the result of which would be announced in May.
Latheef said the new year will commence with the 'dawn of new hope' for the people of Maldives and the party will be 'engineering' a solid road map to beat the incumbent president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom from winning a second term through the presidential election of 2018.
The major opposition party will kick-off their presidential campaign with the winning candidate from their primary.
Furthermore, Latheef has confirmed they will be attempting to construct the manifesto for their campaign sometime next month.
"We will commence all pre-election proceedings in January with compiling and implementing a campaign manifesto during the same month. We are hoping to conclude the manifesto by the month of May, which would be our scheduled period to kick-off the campaign with the primary-won candidate," said Latheef who added "MDP's activities will not be stalled until we elect a candidate from our primary, like wise the opposition alliance will not be idle during this period. We will be continuing in our efforts to start the presidential campaign within our coalition."
MDP's Chairperson echoed the party's most notable sentiment of backing the former president Mohamed Nasheed to run for presidency once again. He also explained the primary is conducted in order to avert any conflicts or discord between its members as well as allowing Nasheed to drop his name as a candidate.
However Nasheed himself has yet to announce his participation in MDP's primary, until then the party leaders believe him to be the most popular name for the party's presidential candidate.
