Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said that Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) administrations were the only administrations which had contributed to the development of Addu within the past 50 years. He made the comment on Thursday while speaking at a campaign rally for MDP candidates running in the 2024 Parliamentary Elections.

MDP is the only party that had a development vision for Addu, he said.

“The city of Addu has been really developed in these past five years, even 50 years, under the MDP administration, and especially in these past five years you will notice that,” he said.

Looking back, Solih said the people of Addu have always lived a prosperous life without relying on the capital Malé.

However, due to changes in administration policies in the 1970s, the entire region had been made stagnant and since then had been on the verge of becoming lifeless, he said, accusing the governments of the era of doing so purposely for political gain.

The new Constitution, which came into force in 2008, lit a spark of hope for the people of Addu and the first MDP-led administration started the work of making that hope a reality, he said of the coalition administration formed under then President Mohamed Nasheed.

However, after the administration was overthrown on the streets, the people of Addu were left in despair, he said.

His administration had done a lot for the development of Addu when his MDP-led administration came back to power, Solih said.

“When you see the work we have started, to build roads, develop the airport, reclaim land for resorts, reclaim the land needed for the residents, build ports and expand MIFCO’s [Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company] cold storages, you will see that we have brought change,” he said.

Highlighting the work done by the MDP for the development of Addu, Solih said US$77 million for road construction and US$26 million for airport development had been allocated for during his administration, with an additional US$85 million spent on tourism development, while MVR 68 million was budgeted for the development of MIFCO’s cold storage facility.

Solih also went on to reiterate that all development projects have now been shelved by the current Mohamed Muizzu administration.