With all 13 members who splintered from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to form The Democrats now officially updated in the parliamentary rolls, the fledgling new party has officially become the largest minority opposition within the legislative body.
With this change, the distribution of the number of seats in parliament stands as; 56 seats held by MDP, 13 by The Democrats, three by the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), three by the People’s National Congress (PNC), three by the Maldives National Party (MNP), two by the Maldives Democratic Alliance (MDA) members, two by Jumhooree Party (JP) and three held by independents.
The Democrats are now the second largest party in parliament. Ali Azim, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Medhu Henveiru constituency, was elected the party’s Parliamentary Group (PG) leader – he also now becomes the minority leader in parliament.