Adhaalath urges coalition partners to maintain alliance

Coalition member of the government, Adhaalath Party has called on its partners to maintain their alliance in order to prioritize the interests of the nation.

Following Jumhooree Party (JP)'s announcement that they are contemplating joining hands with other political parties to form a coalition separate from main ruling party, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for the upcoming parliamentary elections, Adhaalath Party stated that they believe in securing parliament majority for the coalition government and are working towards it.

Former president and coalition partner, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Saturday also appeared to make a similar plea to fellow coalition leaders to preserve the ruling coalition urging them to put national interest ahead of their political parties.

The 80 year old in a Tweet reminded fellow leaders that they had promised the people a just and fair government which persuaded voters to back the coalition in the presidential elections last November.

MDP and JP have remained at loggerheads over contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections through the same coalition which saw them win the presidential elections in November last year.

The coalition parties had previously agreed to contest both the parliamentary election and the local council elections through the coalition in order to ensure maximum number of seats.

According to the original agreement, main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) will contest for 35 seats while Jumhoory Party, Maumoon Reform Movement and Adhaalath Party will contest for 22, 17 and 13 seats respectively.

However, MDP led by former president Mohamed Nasheed has continued to deny the existence of such an agreement with the main ruling party moving ahead with plans to secure parliament majority. MDP decided at its National Council to contest for all 87 constituencies in the parliamentary election, despite the existing coalition agreement to divide up the seats among themselves.

The four leaders of the coalition have sat down several times with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in attempt to resolve the dispute, although an agreement has not been reached thus far. In an interesting turn of events, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih spoke out on Friday regarding his stance on the issue and backed Nasheed's view of securing an MDP majority for the 2019 parliament.

President Solih said that the success of the current government in the 2018 presidential election is largely owed to MDP and the efforts undertaken by its members. A new government was elected with a lot of hopes and dreams, therefore, it is necessary to achieve parliament majority in order to ensure that the visions of the government for the country are fulfilled, said the President.