Nasheed directs ire at ex-MDP MP

The incumbent lawmaker for the Henveiru South constituency in Malé is contesting as an independent after losing the MDP primary in January.

Despite signing a pledge to support the primary’s winner, Rukuma resigned from the MDP last month. The party was no longer able to “tell loyalists and adversaries apart,” he said, a complaint that was echoed by other primary losers who contended the polls were manipulated by members of other parties who joined en masse.

Speaking at a campaign event on Alif Alif Ukulhas, Nasheed – himself an MDP candidate for the Central Machchangoalhi constituency in the capital – suggested the party’s rivals were behind a Supreme Court ruling last month that struck down legal restrictions on primary losers running as independents.