Former parliamentarian Imthiyaz Fahmy (Inthi) has been elected as the president of the opposition political party, the Democrats.
The top post at Democrats was vacated after the party’s president Hassan Latheef, along with vice president Mohamed Shifaz (Shippe) left the party to rejoin the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Inthi, who previously served as a longtime parliamentary representative for the North Maafannu constituency, was elected as Hassan Latheef’s replacement with the vote of 34 in a national council meeting held on Sunday night.
The council also elected former Inguraidhoo MP Mohamed Waheed (Wadde) as the party’s vice president.
Both Inthi and Wadde had run unopposed.
Addressing the meeting following his election as the party’s president, Inthi said that he plans on directing the Democrats to clean up “the polluted political climate.” He added that the Democrats already has a strong foundation, and he plans on building on the foundation in order to strengthen and rile up support for the party.
 “In this polluted political climate, what the people want is a trustworthy clean party. Only a clean party can clean up this country’s polluted political climate,” he said.
Inthi acknowledged that it cannot be done in a single day, but there’s “today, tomorrow and all the days that follow.”