The opposition alliance would not be able to agree on a single candidate to challenge president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in next year's presidential elections, deputy parliament speaker Moosa Manik alleged Tuesday.
The main opposition leaders including former presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed along with Jumhoory Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim and religiously conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla inked an 'unholy' pact to form what they called a 'reform alliance'.
However, with the quartet ruled out either because of the age cap on a presidential candidate or a criminal sentence the alliance are currently engaged in talks to field a single candidate against president Yameen.
Speaking during a program on state TV on Tuesday, the Hulhu-Henveiru MP however, said he expects at least three candidate emerging from the opposition.
"The opposition can't agree on a single candidate. We're seeing signs of that already. We would see atleast two or three candidate," Manik who had fallen out with Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) before he was dismissed from the party for breaking a party whip line during a parliamentary vote said.
Despite allegations of a rift over a single candidate, the opposition parties have nominated representatives for discussions that would ultimately decide its presidential candidate while MDP recently said that it would announce a candidate by May this year.
