Malé, Maldives – Former Chairperson of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Deputy Speaker of People’s Majlis, Reeko Moosa Manik joins back to MDP.
Moosa handed over the signed form to the party’s current chairman Fayyaz Ismail in the presence of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and other senior members of the party.
Moosa was kicked out from MDP in 2014 for violating the MDP’s whip-line in a vote to remove two Supreme Court judges. Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) disciplinary committee took action against him after his absence from a parliamentary vote to dismiss former Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz and Justice Muthasim Adnan.
At the time MDP had announced that if Moosa wished to rejoin the party, he must publicly apologize and gain 50 new members. However, he will not be allowed to contest in any party primary or stand for a leadership position in the next five years.
MP Moosa Manik with MDP leader, former President Mohamed Nasheed started out his political career with Maldivian Democratic Party, and had remained an active and a loyalist to it till his expulsion from the party in 2014. Despite this, parliament only removed him from MDP’s parliamentary group in February 2017.
The former actor and businessman maintained that he was dismissed for announcing his intention to challenge Nasheed in the MDP’s 2018 presidential primary.
Not long after, he officially joined the then ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) on 11th July, 2017. Moosa Manik played an important role in former President Abdulla Yameen’s campaign for re-election in 2018, but was seen praising his successor, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih till he joined MDP again today.
While Moosa remains a strong supporter of President Solih and the government, he has previously launched heated verbal attacks on MDP President and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Nasheed.
