Speaker of Parliament and former President Mohamed Nasheed has joined the newly registered political party, The Democrats.
Nasheed signed on as a member of the party during a special ceremony held at Artificial Beach. Parliamentarian Ahmed Rasheed also joined The Democrats at the ceremony and the party now consists of 15 members in Parliament.
In May, supporters of Nasheed left the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and applied to form The Democrats with 3,560 membership applications. The Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) approved the formation of The Democrats and the party convened its inaugural meeting on July 5, during which, members prepared documents to register the party.
ECM registered the party on July 12 and has handed over the party registry to Founder Hassan Latheef. The Democrats stated that it is determined to expand its membership base and field a presidential candidate for the upcoming election.
The Maldives now consists of 10 registered political parties with most parties inactive. The only parties which have more than 10,000 members are the MDP, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Jumhooree Party (JP), the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA), the Maldives National Party (MNP), and Adhaalath Party (AP).