Solih won office in 2018 on the back of discontent with his autocratic predecessor Abdullah Yameen, an ally of Muizzu’s who is now serving an 11-year prison sentence for corruption.
He had accused Yameen of pushing the country into a Chinese debt trap by borrowing heavily for infrastructure.
Yameen’s turn towards Beijing had alarmed New Delhi, which shares Western concern at China’s growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean and is a member of the strategic Quad alliance alongside the United States, Australia and Japan.
Solih, 61, moved swiftly to repair the relationship with India, inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend his inauguration and allowing a boost to its small military presence.
“INDEPENDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY”
Since losing the first round on Sep 9, Solih has sought to rally support by campaigning on local issues such as housing.
Muizzu’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has kept the debate focused on diplomacy by hammering Solih’s stance towards India, a country with outsized political and economic clout in the nation that has long been a source of disaffection.
The PPM and activist groups have regularly staged street protests demanding a reduction of Indian influence in the Muslim nation.
Public anger against India was partly a reflection of people’s frustration with the perceived or real corruption of the Solih administration, Shaheed said.
He added that the stability of the next government would depend on charting a course that avoided antagonising either of the archipelago’s powerful suitors.
“The next president will have to balance the interests of both India and China,” Shaheed told AFP. “You can’t spurn India and survive.”
Muizzu’s allies say his election would help rid the country of foreign interference altogether.
Dunya Maumoon, a former Cabinet minister who served alongside Muizzu, told AFP this week she supported his efforts to help “rescue the country’s independence and sovereignty”.
But Muizzu has been open about his plans to pursue the pro-Beijing tilt of his mentor Yameen.
He told an online meeting with Chinese Communist Party representatives last year that if the PPM returned to power it would “script a further chapter of strong ties between our two countries”.