MDP Candidates Swear by God Against Party Defection

All the MDP candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election, on March 17th, have sworn not to switch to another party if they are to win the seats they are contesting for.

At the launch of the MDP parliamentary campaign "Direction to the Right Way", the candidates for the parliamentary election were made to swear by Allah that they would not switch to another party.

MDP Chairman Fayyaz Ismail administered the oath to the members, saying, “I swear by God that if I contest the upcoming 2024 Parliamentary elections on the ticket of the Democratic Party of the People of Maldives, I will remain a member of the MDP.”

The MDP is already preparing to introduce an anti-defection law in parliament. The MDP started drafting an anti-defection law after 13 members left the party and joined the ruling PNC. In the last parliamentary elections held in 2019, 65 members were elected on the MDP ticket. However, the party now has 40 members. As mentioned above, 13 members joined the ruling PNC, but prior to that, 12 MDP MPs defected to a new political party formed by Mohamed Nasheed before the last presidential election.