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“Congratulations to president-elect Muizzu,” Solih wrote on X, previously often called Twitter, after conceding defeat on Sunday.
In a press release celebrating his win, Muizzu emphasised that the individuals of the Maldives ought to put apart their variations and work collectively. “With today’s result, we have got the opportunity to build the country’s future. The strength to ensure the freedom of Maldives,” he mentioned.
The vote in Maldives highlighted a bitter divide between pro-India and pro-China camps in Asia’s smallest nation. India and China maintain sway within the island nation within the Indian Ocean, which has slightly over 400,000 inhabitants unfold throughout the archipelago and sits in a strategically essential location for each commerce and safety.
The United States has additionally prioritized enhancing relations with the Maldives in recent times, and final month despatched profession diplomat Hugo Yue-Ho Yon to turn out to be the primary resident ambassador there. The U.S. authorities beforehand maintained diplomatic relations by means of its embassy in Sri Lanka.
The State Department congratulated Muizzu on his election win on Sunday. The United States “looks forward to deepening our partnership with Maldives and expanding our people-to-people ties,” spokesman Matthew Miller mentioned in a press release.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi additionally congratulated Muizzu. “India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested India-Maldives bilateral relationship,” Modi wrote on X.
The incumbent, Solih, has been in energy since 2018 and pushed for nearer relations with New Delhi underneath an “India First” coverage that included searching for new commerce agreements and permitting India to function a small navy attachment on Maldives territory.
Solih’s push was a shift from the insurance policies of his predecessor, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who led the nation between 2013 and 2018. Yameen steered the nation nearer to Beijing, supporting main infrastructure tasks with Chinese funding by means of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Advocacy teams accused Yameen of human rights abuses throughout his tenure, and after shedding workplace in 2018, he was despatched to jail on bribery and cash laundering fees that his supporters claimed had been politically motivated.
The 45-year-old Muizzu, a former building minister and present mayor of the capital, Malé, was not an apparent selection for a presidential candidate — however he stepped in after a courtroom dominated that Yameen couldn’t run.
An ally of Yameen’s, he had helped oversee a number of main infrastructure tasks, together with a $200 million, Chinese-funded bridge that linked the capital with the Maldives’ essential airport.
Muizzu campaigned on an “India Out” platform, arguing that the navy presence within the Maldives undermined its sovereignty and pledging to expel all Indian navy personnel. He additionally capitalized on widespread discontent with the nation’s low financial efficiency and leaned into extra nationalist rhetoric.
Muizzu received the primary spherical of the presidential vote final month; a second runoff vote was held after no candidate acquired an absolute majority.
On Sunday, Yameen was transferred from jail to deal with arrest. Muizzu had pledged to launch the previous president ought to he win the election.
Muizzu’s victory drew sharp feedback from Indian commentators. Brahma Chellaney, a former member of India’s nationwide safety advisory board and an outspoken critic of Beijing, wrote on X that it was an “important diplomatic setback for India in its own backyard” and was influenced by the “Islamist vote.”
Anti-Indian sentiment within the predominantly Muslim Maldives was linked to an assault on a New Delhi-sponsored yoga occasion in Malé final 12 months. Some of the attackers carried flags of Muizzu’s Progressive Party of Maldives, in addition to indicators that mentioned yoga was towards the teachings of Islam, based on studies in Indian media.
Indian affect within the Maldives has historically been robust, with New Delhi sending troops to the island in 1988 to thwart a coup try that will have ousted the dictator it was backing, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (Gayoom was ultimately faraway from energy 30 years later, in 2008, after the nation’s first democratic election).
In 2018, an Indian member of Parliament had publicly urged that India should “invade” the Maldives if the elections were rigged, which the federal government swiftly disavowed.
In interviews with the Indian publication the Wire, allies of Muizzu mentioned the president-elect was not searching for to disrupt relations with New Delhi and would doubtless make his first worldwide go to to India, as different Maldives presidents have accomplished.
“We should be able to continue to enjoy cordial relations with India or for that matter with any country without the need to have boots on the ground,” mentioned Ahmed Mohamed, who served as Maldives’ ambassador to India in the course of the Yameen authorities.
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