2018 Maldivian presidential election

2018 Maldivian presidential election

← 2013 23 September 2018 2023 →
Turnout89.22%
 
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

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.

  1. ^ "Statement by the Elections Commission of Maldives Regarding Procedures for Vote Counting at Polling Stations". Elections Commission of Maldives. 19 September 2018. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  2. ^ "Maldives opposition candidate wins pres polls". Avas. 23 September 2018. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 17 April 2024.