2018 Maldivian presidential election

2018 Maldivian presidential election

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Turnout	89.22%
Nominee Ibrahim Mohamed Solih Abdulla Yameen Party MDP PPM Running mate Faisal Naseem Mohamed Shaheem Popular vote 134,705 96,052 Percentage 58.38% 41.62%
President before election Abdulla Yameen PPM Elected President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih MDP

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Presidential elections were held in the Maldives on Sunday, 23 September 2018.^[1] Incumbent president Abdulla Yameen of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) was seeking re-election for a second five-year term. His only challenger was Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), who was nominated as the joint candidate of a coalition of opposition parties.

The result was a surprise victory for Solih, who received over 58% of the vote and was elected as the seventh President of the Maldives.^[2] He assumed office on 17 November 2018. Solih is the country's third democratically elected president since Mohamed Nasheed's victory over Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the 2008 elections which ended a 30-year incumbency.

Yameen is the fourth consecutive Maldivian president to have at some point lost a bid for re-election. Namely, Yameen himself came to office by defeating former president Mohamed Nasheed, who was running for a second non-consecutive term in 2013, after having resigned in 2012 during the 2011–12 Maldives political crisis. Nasheed's successor in office, his Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan also sought re-election in 2013, but decided not to contest the re-run after the initial election was annulled. Finally, Nasheed had been elected in the 2008 election by defeating long-term incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.