Maldives: PontaSud – Chiquera Swanepoel
Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed said on Wednesday that he is considering returning to office in 2028.
Nasheed, 58, announced his intention in a message he sent to several members of his inner circle in the morning.
A close aide told Sun that it is “highly likely” to see Nasheed in the 2028 presidential race. However, the former president has not shared how he intends to contest the election, as an independent, or on behalf of a political party.
Several people who are close to him told Sun that Nasheed was considering returning to office due to “the current situation in the country.”
Nasheed, one of the founding members of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), held office from 2008 until his resignation in 2012, a decision that he later said he was forced to make due to a coup by the security forces.
Nasheed made an unsuccessful attempt to return to office with the 2013 election. In 2015, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for terrorism – a conviction that was later overturned, but not before it ruled him out of contention in the 2018 election.
In 2016, Nasheed was given asylum in the United Kingdom, where he had gone for medical treatment after being granted a furlough from prison.
In November 2023, Nasheed resigned as Speaker of the Parliament in face of a no-confidence vote, and announced the next month that he was taking “a respite from active politics” to assume a new post in Ghana as the secretary general of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF).
But in January this year, Nasheed said that he hasn’t completely moved away from politics despite his new role, and in April, he urged the MDP and Democrats to work together, saying that he believes that to be in the best interest of the country, as well as the two parties.
