Ruling coalition partner, Adhaalath Party will be holding a primary election for Inguraidhoo Constituency this Friday.
The party's electoral committee stated on Monday that all arrangements have been made to conduct the primary for Inguraidhoo constituency on 25th January, Friday to choose a contestant who will be representing the party in the parliamentary race this April.
Two individuals will be contesting for the AP ticket in the primary. Inguraidhoo constituency is the only constituency for which a primary will be held by Adhaalath.
Adhaalath will be contesting for 13 different constituencies in the paliamentary elections.
The coalition partners had peviously agreed ahead of the presidential election to contest both the parliamentary election and the local council elections together, in order to ensure maximum number of seats for the coalition.
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 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. However, an agreement has not been reached thus far.
While Adhaalath seem to be the only party honoring the original agreement, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has stated that it is imperative for main-ruling party, MDP to secure parliament majority in the upcoming elections in order to fulfill government pledges, while MDP led by former president Mohamed Nasheed continues to deny the existence of such an agreement.
MDP have already concluded their primaries while it is expected that the rest of the coalition partners will soon follow suit.
President of Adaalath Party with deputy leader, Ali Zahir
