Leaders of the ruling coalition have still not set a date for their monthly meeting.
The four leaders and President Solih met for the first time on 15th November. Speaking to the press after the meeting, President Nasheed, President Maumoon, Sheikh Imran and Qasim Ibrahim announced that they plan to meet every month with President Solih to offer him their counsel and guidance.
At the time they stated that the monthly meetings will keep the coalition together. The leaders held their second meeting on 20th December. However, relations between the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Jumhoory Party (JP) turned sour after MDP announced that they intend to contest for 86 constituencies in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The leader of JP Mr.Qasim Ibrahim stated that MDP agreed to contest for the parliamentary elections as a coalition and even publicized an agreement signed by President Solih and MDP’s chairperson Mr.Hassan Latheef.
MDP claimed that it was not an agreement but a ‘proposal’ and hence they are not obliged to abide by that. Since then Mr.Qasim announced that he is open to talk with other parties to work together in the parliamentary elections.
Speaking to the press last week the President stated that he hopes to hold the meeting sometime this week. However according to various sources, so far, a date has not been finalized.
Many speculate that the ruling coalition will be officially disbanded before the parliamentary elections.
