The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has denied agreeing to back a referendum on the system of government if the Democrats stayed neutral in the runoff of the presidential election.
Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed, who also leads the Democrats, said on Tuesday that MDP had agreed to back the referendum if his party decides not to endorse either candidate.
Speaking during the Parliament session, he claimed that the current MDP is an untrustworthy party and accused the party of not cooperating in the process of going for a public referendum.
In a post on social media, MDP responded to Nasheed's remarks.
"The proposal made by the Democrats was that they would endorse this party's candidate in the second round of the presidential election if we agree to hold a referendum before September 30," MDP stated.
"We informed the Democrats that the MDP cannot accept this proposal."
The MDP said that "nothing else was agreed between this party and The Democrats" and that the Democrats' decision to stay neutral was not connected to any agreement with the MDP.
The Democrats have been advocating for changing to a parliamentary system. The main reason offered by the party is the need to form coalitions as presidential candidates are unable to win a majority of votes. But coalitions are a feature of parliamentary systems, the party notes.
Parliament on September 30 passed a resolution to hold a public referendum on the system of government before October 30.
The MDP is the majority party in parliament with 57 MPs and The Democrats is the minority party formed with 13 MPs from a breakaway faction of the MDP.
A report compiled by a full-house committee that studied the resolution proposed by Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb - presidential candidate of The Democrats - was passed with 35 votes in favour from the 87-member parliament, including MDP MPs. No MP voted against the resolution.
