The Democrats will hold a referendum to elect a candidate for September's presidential election with Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb as the sole contender for the party's primary.
The party invited applications on Thursday from members interested in contesting in the presidential election. Only Ilyas Labeeb submitted the form by the deadline of 4 pm on Saturday.
According to The Democrats' statutes, if only one person contests in a primary, the candidate will be elected in a yes or no vote among members.
The presidential ticket will be awarded to the primary candidate if 10 percent of members vote in favor in the referendum. The party currently has 4000 members, according to the list of members published by The Democrats.
Ilyas Labeeb as the only contender in The Democrats' primary will need the support of 10 percent of voters to win the primary.
Responding to questions from the public at an event with supporters on Saturday night, Ilyas said that former President Mohamed Nasheed was his "political teacher" and "political mentor".
"I will go forward behind him and remain behind him in the future. There's no way I can get in front of him," Labeeb said.
Nasheed was expected to contest in the presidential election after forming the new political party. But Nasheed said last week that he was not interested in running.
Nasheed has also proposed all the opposition parties fielding a common candidate. The Jumhooree Party (JP) and Maldives National Party (MNP) have so far agreed but they want the approval of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).
Hussain Amr, former managing director of the State Trading Organization (STO), who was expected to contest in The Democrats' primary, decided not to seek the ticket.
The PPM has proposed its candidate, former president Abdulla Yameen, as the common opposition candidate. But Yameen is serving an 11-year jail sentence. He cannot contest unless the conviction is overturned.
Nasheed, who led the formation of The Democrats was also a co-founder of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). He was the presidential candidate chosen by the MDP's primary in 2008, 2013 and 2018.
But as Nasheed was serving a jail sentence in 2018, the MDP congress decided to award the ticket to Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was the party's parliamentary group leader at the time.
Since assuming office, the MDP's internal organs have been under President Solih's control. He also won internal elections including the MDP's presidential primary to secure the party's ticket.
