Maldivian voters support President Mohamed Muiz’s focus on China and away from its traditional benefactor, India, and his party won a landslide election victory that gave it a majority in parliament.
According to the Maldives Election Commission, Muizu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) won 66 of the 86 seats originally declared, already more than enough for a 93-seat supermajority.
The vote was seen as a key test for Muiz’s plans for closer economic cooperation with China, including building thousands of apartments on controversial reclaimed land.
The Maldives is known as a top luxury holiday destination thanks to its pristine white beaches and secluded resorts, but in recent years it has become a popular destination for the Indian Ocean, where the world’s east-west sea routes pass through the archipelago. It is also attracting attention as a geopolitical hotspot.
Muiz won last September’s presidential election on behalf of pro-Beijing former president Abdullah Yameen, who was released last week after a court quashed his 11-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
This month, with parliamentary election campaigning in full swing, Muiz awarded high-profile infrastructure contracts to Chinese state-owned companies.
The government is also in the process of repatriating an 89-member Indian military garrison operating reconnaissance aircraft gifted by New Delhi to patrol the Maldives’ vast maritime borders.
The PNC and its allies held just eight seats in the previous parliament, and Muiz was hampered by his victory in September’s presidential election, a lack of a majority.
The main opposition party, the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP), which had previously enjoyed a supermajority, faced a humiliating defeat with just ten seats.
The pro-India Democratic Party sought to thwart Muiz’s efforts to reshape Maldives diplomacy.
Since Muiz took power, lawmakers have blocked three of his cabinet nominees and rejected some of his spending proposals.
The Maldives is a lowland nation made up of approximately 1,192 small coral islands scattered 800 kilometers from the equator, and is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of rising sea levels due to global warming.
Muiz, a former construction minister, has promised to fight off the waves with ambitious land reclamation and high-rise construction on the island, but environmentalists say the policy could worsen the flood risk.
