The results were released of Maldives Parliamentary elections after being postponed on Monday, April 22. Maldivian President Mohammad Muizzu’s Party, PNC won the elections in a landslide victory.
According to the results, the People’s National Congress won a ‘super-majority’ securing 70 seats out of 93 seats. As against this, the main Opposition party, Maldivian Democratic Party(MDP) secured only 15 seats, losing 50 seats from the previous term. And out of 41 female candidates, only 3 won and they belonged to Muizzu’s PNC.
The President on multiple occasions has stressed on building stronger relations with China. He has also pledged to end the former ‘India first’ policy and pivot towards China. As a first step in that direction, the President has handed multiple expensive infrastructure projects, including an artificial island housing tens of thousands of apartments, fish factories and a new airport, to Chinese state-owned companies.
The PNC earned a significant number of seats in important constituencies like Male, Addu, Fuvahmulah and Kulhudhuffushi. This development will allow Muizzu’s government to pass China-friendly legislations in the parliament easily.
In an act of growing friendship between the two nations, China congratulated Prez Muizzu for the win and wished to carry forward the traditional friendship and cooperation in all fields, deepen our comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and build a community of shared future.
Diplomatic Relations with India
India was among the first to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country. Since then, the bilateral relations have been nurtured and strengthened with regular meetings at the highest levels. It had significantly flourished under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s government, under its ‘India First’ policy.
But of late, relations between the two nations have become quite strained after President Muizzu took office. Derogatory remarks about India and its PM from party members of PNC had recieved backlash from Indian in the form of ‘Boycott Maldives’ campaign run on social media. This petty debacle reduced a once glorious diplomatic relations into a public diplomacy. Several Indian tourists canceled their reservations to the island country leading to a decrease in the number of tourists and considerably impacting Maldives’ tourism economy.
Although the president has claimed that India will continue to remain its closest ally, his actions have proven otherwise. In March 2024, India had withdrawn its long standing military personnel from the Island-nation, following a demand made by its President. Despite this, he didn’t shy away from seeking a debt- relief from India. The hefty sum of 400.9 million dollars owed by Maldives by the end of 2023.
Maldives Diplomatic Relations with China
Diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and Island-country were established in 1972. Maldives was one of the first south Asian countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative launched by Chinese Prez Xi Jinping.
Post a win in Presidential elections, the Maldives President for the first time, chose China over India for his first overseas visit. This gave away a clear signal to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the two countries. From “comprehensive friendly cooperative partnership” their relationship has now elevated to “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership”, a Chinese news service reported.
In March, the Maldives also signed a military agreement with China, allowing them to obtain free “non-lethal” military equipment and training from the Chinese military to “increase the technical capacity of the defense forces”. This was the first that such a high level military bilateral agreement was made between the two countries.
Maldivian President Muizzu seems pretty confident with his pro-China steps and has no intention of decelerating its fast-strengthening ties with China. This situation is not favorable for India, as Maldives plays a significant role in the geo-politics of South Asia.
