MDP Deputy Leader Mohamed Shifaz says that only members of the Party will have the opportunity and right to decide on who will be the Party’s candidate.

Speaking in the MDP Haruge meeting, Shifaz said that President Yameen felt threatened when President Nasheed announced his Presidential bid for 2018. He said even though President Yameen had expressed his dissatisfaction with this, MDP will choose their own candidate for the Presidential slot.

“President Yameen cannot afford to remain calm when President Nasheed announced his decision to come back, contest for Presidency,” Shifaz said.

Nasheed, living in a self-imposed exile in the UK, had recently announced his Presidency bid for 2018 at a meeting with members of the Party’s National Congress held in Sri Lanka. President Yameen had criticized Nasheed’s statements that he will seek international help to contest the elections.

Shifaz said that ruling PPM had doubled their efforts to coerce the public as soon as they were aware that Nasheed will contest the elections. However, he said that even with the difficulties, 25,000 members of the Party had gone out to vote, adding that this was strong reminder to the President.

He said that MDP members had gone out to vote in the Chairperson polls, not because the Party had begged but rather because they had done some good during their tenure. Shifaz said that MDP did not coerce public to sign up to the Party when MDP was ruling the nation. He also said the Party had never forced their Cabinet members to go on recruitment drives in order to become the biggest party in the nation.