MALÉ, Maldives: The Maldives goes to polls today (Sunday) in a parliamentary election likely to test President Mohamed Muizzu’s tilt towards China and away from India.
Maldives is one of the most expensive holiday destinations in South Asia and India is the luxury tourism hotspot’s traditional benefactor.
The country has pristine white beaches and secluded resorts while the strategic Indian Ocean Island nation has also become a geopolitical hotspot.
Global east-west shipping lanes pass the country’s chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands, stretching around 800 kilometres across the equator.
President Mohammad Muizzu, 45, won last September’s presidential election on behalf of former pro-China Abdulla Yamin, who was released this week after his 11-year prison sentence on corruption charges was overturned.
This month, Muizzu awarded prominent infrastructure contracts to Chinese state-owned enterprises while the parliamentary campaign was underway.
The government is also returning 89 Indian troops that operate reconnaissance aircraft that New Delhi gifted to patrol the archipelago’s vast maritime borders.
The current parliament is dominated by the pro-India Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of his immediate predecessor, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, and is trying to thwart Muizzu’s efforts to reshape the archipelago’s diplomacy.
Geopolitics has a lot to do with how political parties fight for votes in Sunday’s election, according to a senior Muizzu aide.
Muizzu came to power with a promise to send Indian troops home, and he is still working on it. Since he came to power, Congress has not cooperated with him though.
Since he took office, lawmakers have blocked three of his cabinet nominees and rejected some of his spending proposals.
All major political parties, including Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC), have split and it is expected that it will be difficult for either party to win a majority.
But Muizzu’s outlook brightened this week after his mentor, Yameen, was released from house arrest.
A court in the capital, Male, has ordered a retrial of the corruption and money laundering case that sent Yameen to prison after losing the 2018 election race.
Yemeen also advocated closer cooperation with the Chinese government during his time in power, but the conviction prevented him from running in last year’s presidential election.
Yameen recommended Muizzu as his deputy and, after leaving the Supreme Court on Thursday, vowed to continue the anti-India campaign that helped his allies win.
About 285,000 Maldivians are eligible to vote today and results will be known early the next day.
