Addu City councillor for the Hulhumeedhoo district, Ali Mohamed, has defected from the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).
Ali Mohamed signed his membership form at a ceremony held on Tuesday night to inaugurate a resort development project on the uninhabited island of Ismehela in the southernmost atoll.
He said at the ceremony that he wanted to work with the government to ensure the development of Addu City.
“We were elected by the people to serve them. I don’t believe that I was elected to topple governments and to protest against the government on the street,” he was quoted as saying by local media.
He said development can be ensured by working with the government and called on other MDP MPs councillors to sign for the ruling party.
A futsal stadium recently built in Hulhumeedhoo and the 600-bed integrated resort development project on Ismelehera was proof that results can be achieved through cooperation, he added.
The MDP had won all six seats of the Addu City council in both the 2011 and 2013 local council elections. Ali Mohamed becomes the first PPM councillor for Addu City.
Meanwhile, Addu City mayor Abdulla Sodiq said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the council has never obstructed the government’s development projects.
Progress or development cannot be achieved by “selling political convictions for a small sum of money,” he wrote.
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