Maldives President Ibrahim Solí scores comfortable victory in unprecedented party primary

29 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solí, has won the primary elections of his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), an unprecedented election that has faced former president Mohamed Nashid, who has declared his intention anyway to compete in the upcoming presidential elections on September 9.

Solí, close to China, has obtained 61 percent of the votes amid protests from his rival, who has denounced discrepancies between the vote counts at some polling stations and the total number of registered voters.

The Electoral Commission has denied these accusations while President Solí has ​​recommended his rival to put aside his personal interests.

“What I have to tell my opponents is that the competition is over. Now we must emerge as a party to win the presidential elections,” he made known in his triumphant speech, picked up by the Maldivian portal ‘The Sun’.

Another contentious issue has been the removal of several thousand members from the MDP registry, since then unable to vote in the primaries. Nashid’s campaign has denounced that the measure has mainly affected supporters of the former president.