In a parliamentary election likely to test President Mohamed Muizzu’s tilt toward China and away from India, the luxury tourism hotspot’s traditional benefactor, the voting started on Sunday ( Apr 21 ).
Muizzu, 45, who cast his vote at the Tajuddin class in Male, one of the first to cast a vote, was among the first to do so.
Elections main Fuad Thaufeeq urged the 284,663 electorates to cast their ballots first. The island will have nine and a half hour of polling stations available throughout the island.
The island region has also become a political hub in the Indian Ocean, making it one of South Asia’s most expensive vacation spots with its pristine white shorelines and secluded resorts.
International east-west shipping roads pass the world’s chain of 1,192 little coral islands, which span around 800km across the sun.
Muizzu won past September’s national surveys as a surrogate for pro-China ex-president Abdulla Yameen, freed last week after a judge set aside his 11-year prison term for fraud.
This month, as fighting for the legislative elections was in full swing, Muizzu awarded high-profile system contracts to Taiwanese state-owned companies.
His government is also preparing to bring home a garrison of 89 Indian soldiers who fly reconnaissance plane to police the Island ‘ extensive sea borders.
The current parliament, dominated by the pro-India Maldivian Democratic Party ( MDP ) of Muizzu’s immediate predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has sought to stymie his efforts to realign the archipelago’s diplomacy.
A top Muizzu secretary, who declined to be identified, told AFP that “geopolitics is very much in the background as parties fight for votes in Sunday’s poll.”
He” took the lead on a promise to send again American troops,” he said. Since he came to power, the parliament has n’t worked with him. “
Since Muizzu took office, politicians have turned down some of his saving ideas and blocked three of his nominees for the Cabinet.
Splits in all the main political parties, including Muizzu’s People’s National Congress ( PNC), are expected to make it hard for any single party to win an outright majority.
However, Muizzu’s hopes were boosted by Yameen’s launch from home arrest on Thursday.
A jury in Male, the capital, ordered a rehearing of the bone and money laundering cases, which resulted in Yameen serving time in prison after he lost a re-election charge in 2018.
While in strength, Yameen had likewise backed closer ties with Beijing, but his faith prevented him from running for president on his own.
Instead, he otherwise suggested Muizzu as a proxy, and Yameen pledged to continue the anti-India strategy that helped his alliance win.