Maldives polls begin in shadow of India-China power play
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People began lining up across the archipelago to cast their ballots before voting began at 8am local time.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MalE – The Maldives began voting on Saturday to decide its next president in a referendum on whether to hitch its fortunes to China or India, both vying for influence in the tropical paradise.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, 61, faces an uphill battle to secure a second mandate after a term that saw renewed ties with New Delhi, the archipelago nation’s traditional benefactor.
Front runner Mohamed Muizzu,
Mr Muizzu won 46 per cent of the first-round vote in September, seven points clear of Mr Solih, but the contest remains on a knife’s edge, with barely 15,000 votes between the pair.
Before voting began at 8am local time (11am Singapore time), people began lining up across the archipelago, best known for its luxury beach resorts and celebrity tourists, to cast their ballots.
“Queues formed long before polling opened,” an election official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP.
“The Elections Commission is encouraging people to vote early.”
Just over 282,000 people are eligible to vote before polls close at 5pm, with results expected late on Saturday or early Sunday.
The Maldives sits in a strategically vital position in the middle of the Indian Ocean, astride one of the world’s busiest East-West shipping lanes.
Mr Muizzu’s party moved into Beijing’s orbit when last in power and was an eager recipient of financial largesse from China’s Belt and Road infrastructure programme.
His mentor, former president Abdulla Yameen, borrowed heavily from China for construction projects and spurned India.
Mr Solih was elected in 2018 on the back of discontent with the increasingly autocratic rule of Mr Yameen, whom Mr Solih accused of pushing the country into a Chinese debt trap by borrowing heavily for infrastructure.
But Mr Solih’s restoration of the Maldives’ traditional posture has itself proved controversial, with many in the archipelago disapproving of India’s outsized political and economic clout.
If elected, Mr Muizzu has vowed to free his mentor, Mr Yameen, who is serving an 11-year sentence for corruption on the same prison island where he jailed many of his political opponents during his tenure. AFP
