New Maldives developed out of the close relationship between Hassan Saeed, who became the Attorney-General in November 2003, and Ahmed Shaheed when the latter was appointed as Chief Government Spokesman in May 2004.
By April 2006, the Old Guard led by the President's half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, clashed openly with the New Maldives ministers during the elections for the DRP Council.
In the process, the New Maldives effectively destroyed the careers of both Ilyas Ibrahim and Abdulla Yameen, who had been the leading contenders to succeed President Gayoom.
Shortly after the election victory, Shaheed and Saeed engineered the Westminster House process, through which they pardoned and released a number of high-profile dissidents who were languishing in jail or facing politically motivated prosecutions.
Having left the Cabinet, the trio launched the New Maldives Movement on 29 August 2007 in Colombo, and traveled to London and Brussels to generate international support for the project.
Hassan Saeed, with Shaheed as his running mate, contested the first-ever multi-party presidential elections held in the Maldives in October 2008 on an independent ticket.
At the start of the campaign, Saeed successfully overcame attempts to disqualify his candidature on the basis of his age (he was 38 at that time) and on the grounds of the nationality of his wife.
The New Maldives team were blacked out from the state media for much of the campaign, until they threatened to take legal action against the government under the new Constitution that came into force a few weeks ahead of the election.