Presidential candidate for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mohamed Nasheed has announced the launch of their campaign for the run-off of the presidential election.
Nasheed led yesterday's first round of polls with 95,224 votes (45.45 percent), but failing to secure more than the 50 percent necessary to win through the first round.
Speaking at a press conference today, Nasheed stated that MDP will win the election even if the country went to the polls today. They will gain a majority from every island in the Maldives, he said.
Nasheed said that many new faces are willing to join him in the run-off, including former minister of the Maumoon administration, their family members and other political leaders.
He said that yesterday’s poll was a clear statement that there was no support for current president Dr. Mohamed Waheed, who gained 10,750 votes (5.13 percent). Nasheed said that contrary to the CoNI report, the majority of Maldivians are with his party.
“The biggest reality of yesterday’s election was that there is no support for my former vice president Mohamed Waheed. There is no support for those kind of actions in the Maldives,” Nasheed said.
However, the former president had boldly stated during his campaign that he would stop talking of politics if Waheed secures more than 10,000 votes in the election.