Picture : ANI/ X
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s political party won 70 seats and secured a “super majority” in parliamentary elections, seen as a strong endorsement of his pro-Beijing foreign policy, as both India and China closely watched the polls amidst regional power dynamics in the archipelago nation, preliminary results suggested .
According to news agency PTI, Muizzu-led People’s National Congress (PNC) won 70 out of 93 seats in the People’s Majlis in Sunday’s polls and its coalition partners Maldives National Party (MNP) and Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) won one and two seats, respectively, in the 20th People’s Majlis with the power to amend the Constitution.
The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), led by former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who is seen as a pro-India leader, held 65 seats in the previous parliament but won only 15 seats this time, Mihaaru, a news website, reported.
Muizzu, 45, known for his pro-China leanings, has said that he wants to reduce India’s influence in his country.
Local media described the PNC’s landslide win in Sunday’s election as a “super majority”.
In the 2019 elections, the then-ruling MDP won a super majority in Parliament, with 64 seats while the then-opposition PPM-PNC coalition won just eight.
The PNC won a high number of seats in Male, Addu, Fuvahmulah and Kulhudhuffushi. The Democrats, as well as Adhaalath Party, failed to win any seats at all. Official results for the parliamentary election in Maldives, which has a strategic location in the Indian Ocean, are expected later this week.
A total of 368 candidates were in the fray, including 130 independent candidates, 10 candidates from Jumhoory Party (JP), 39 from The Democrats, Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) 4, Adhaalath Party (AP) 4, and Maldives National Party (MNP) 2 nominees. About 40 in numbers — 10.76 per cent — of the candidates were women.
