Main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s National Council has approved the appointment of the party’s Legal Director Hisaan Hussain as the party’s deputy leader.

MDP announced the decision via a post on its official X handle.

As per the post, Hisaan was approved for the post by the unanimous votes of the National Council.

Hisaan was nominated MDP’s deputy leader by the party’s leader Abdulla Shahid, citing her interrupted services to the party spanning over years. He also described her as the most suitable person for the role.

Shahid added that one of the things that guided his decision was the current lack of women in leadership positions within the MDP.

Hisaan has a Master of Laws (LLM) focused on Commercial Law from Cardiff University in Wales. She is the managing partner at the Align Consultancy LLP, and has represented top MDP leaders in legal battles.

In 2019, She was elected to the Parliament as the representative of the Thulhaadhoo constituency – in an election in which the then-ruling MDP secured a landslide victory. During her time at the Parliament, Hisaan was parliamentary appointee to the Judicial Service Commission, and went on to get elected as the commission’s president.

But she decided against running for re-election this year, contrary to her husband, Ibrahim Nazil, who was re-elected as the South Hithadhoo MP in April. He currently serves as MDP’s parliamentary group leader.

The role of MDP’s deputy leader has been vacant since Mohamed Shifaz, along with a dozen other prominent politicians, walked out of MDP to form the Democrats in May last year. The creation of Democrats had been the culmination of months of infighting between members aligned with former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed and then-president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih – both of them founding members of the MDP.

According to the Elections Commission’s records, the MDP, the Maldives’ biggest and longest-running political party, has 51,516 members.