Pro-China leader Muizzu’s party wins resoundingly in the Maldives election

Results of the election on Sunday indicated that the Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s party had gained a resounding majority in parliament, with voters supporting his shift away from India, the traditional benefactor and regional giant, and toward China.

According to results released by the Elections Commission of the Maldives, Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) secured 66 of the first 86 seats to be announced. This is more than enough to give the party a super-majority in the 93-member majlis, or parliament.

The election was seen as a critical litmus test for Muizzu’s strategy to advance deeper economic ties with China, which included building thousands of residences on contentiously reclaimed territory.

With only eight seats in the departing parliament held by the PNC and its allies, Muizzu was unable to form a majority after his victory in the September presidential election.

With only twelve seats, the dominant opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which had previously had a supermajority of its own, was certain to suffer a humiliating loss.

Muizzu, 45, was one of the first people to cast a ballot on Sunday. He did it in a school in Male, the capital, where he served as mayor before, and he encouraged Maldivians to vote in large numbers.

Muizzu urged reporters, “Everyone should exercise their right to vote as soon as possible.”

The Maldives is one of the nations most susceptible to sea level rise brought on by global warming. It is a low-lying country made up of around 1,192 small coral islands dispersed 800 kilometers (500 miles) across the equator.

Environmentalists contend that Muizzu’s aggressive land reclamation and island-building plans, which he made public as a previous minister of construction, might potentially increase the danger of floods.

The Maldives’ immaculate white beaches and exclusive resorts have made it a favored choice for luxury vacationers.

But since international east-west shipping lines cross the archipelago, it has also developed into a geopolitical flashpoint in the Indian Ocean in recent years.

Adopting a pro-China stance, Muizzu won the September presidential election last year in lieu of Abdulla Yameen, who was released from prison last week after his 11-year sentence for corruption was overturned by a court.