Maldives’ President secures sweeping majority in Parliament election

Male: Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu's party won more than two-thirds in the 93-member parliament in the elections held on Sunday, according to results from the Elections Commission of Maldives, news agency AFP reported.

The landslide majority secured by the People's National Congress (PNC) in effect shows voters are backing Muizzu’s China tilt policy, veering away from the country’s traditional benefactor, India.

The PNC won 66 out of 86 declared results, which is more than enough for the party to have control of the Parliament.

The new assembly will take charge in May after the formal ratification of the results takes a week, AFP reported.

Only three women candidates belonging to PNC out of a total of 41 were also elected, the report said citing the local Mihaaru newspaper.

The election gained international attention as it was seen as a crucial test for Muizzu’s changed foreign diplomacy, which until he came to power was in favour of India.

The country’s main opposition party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has been reduced to a humiliating dozen seats, where it previously had a ‘super-majority of its own’.

After casting his vote at a school in the capital Male, the 45-year-old Muizzu said: ‘All citizens should come out and exercise their right to vote as soon as possible.’

The tiny nation of 1,192 coral islands stretching some 800 kilometres in the Indian Ocean is predicted to be highly vulnerable to rising sea levels from global warming.

Muizzu, who is a former construction minister, has promised to countenance the threat by ‘building islands higher’, which many view could only ‘exacerbate flooding risks’.

The Maldives, a major luxury holiday destination, has recently become a ‘geopolitical hotspot’ after Muizzu came to power as a ‘proxy for pro-China ex-president Abdulla Yameen,’ according to the report.