Five sitting parliamentarians have competed and lost in the primary elections held by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
The five parliamentarians include Mohamed Abdul Kareem, Ibrahim Mohamed Didi, Mohamed Nazim, Ali Nizar and Mohamed Abdulla. The latter was elected to the Parliament from Jumhooree Party but later signed for the then ruling Progressive Party of Maldives. However, following his support to the no confidence vote against the Parliament Speaker, he was expelled from the party. The Elections Commission of Maldives announced he had lost seat in the Parliament. He was reinstated almost one and half years later and signed for MDP, following the landslide victory in the presidential election.
Other key figures who lost the primary elections include Special Envoy at the President’s Office Abdulla Jabir and his spouse and former Attorney General Dhiyana Saeed.
Furthermore, the primaries also saw several former journalists compete for a party ticket but disastrously fail. The journalists who failed in securing a ticket from the main ruling party include former Senior Editor at Public Service Media (PSM) Hafsee Abdulla, former journalists at Raajje TV Ahmed Fairooz, Mohamed Fazeen and Husham Mohamed. The only journalists who managed to win the primaries are Ahmed Visam and Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeq.
MDP held primaries for 77 constituencies, with 10 candidates already having won party tickets without a primary, as no other contestants showed interest to compete.