Incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and seven other candidates have registered to run in the Maldives’ presidential elections next month, the island archipelago’s fourth since becoming a multiparty democracy in 2008. Solih is expected to face stiff competition after democracy campaigner and ex-President Mohamed Nasheed split off from the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party. Nasheed’s new party, The Democrats, nominated the lawmaker Ilyas Labeeb as its candidate ahead of Monday’s deadline to register for the Sept. 9 election. The main opposition People’s National Congress has nominated Mohamed Muiz after its leader Abdullah Yameen, also a former president, was deemed ineligble to run by the Supreme Court on Sunday because he is serving a jail sentence for corruption.
