Preliminary results show that President Mohamed Muiz’s PNC party has a super majority in parliament, giving the opposition a significant lead.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muiz’s party won Sunday’s election in a landslide, according to preliminary results.
Local media reported early Monday that the People’s National Congress (PNC) won 70 of 93 seats, giving it full control of parliament. The outcome is likely to accelerate the shift away from the country’s traditional ally, India, towards China.
The results, if confirmed, will give the PNC an overwhelming majority, boosted by the three seats secured by its allies. Full official results are expected to be announced later Monday.
According to local news site Mihar, the main opposition party, the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP), led by former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who is seen as pro-India, won only 15 seats compared to the 65 seats in the defunct parliament.
According to Michal’s report, only three female candidates out of 41 candidates were elected. All three are members of her PNC in Muizzu.
Formal approval of the results is expected to take a week, and the new parliament will be sworn in in early May.
The vote was seen as a key test for Muiz’s plans to promote closer economic cooperation with China after winning last September’s presidential election.
The PNC and its allies had just eight seats in the outgoing parliament, making it difficult for Muiz to push through his policies after winning the presidential election.
The Democratic Party, which had previously enjoyed a super-majority, was predicted to suffer a humiliating defeat with just a dozen seats even before preliminary results were announced.
The Maldives is a low-lying country with 1,192 small coral islands scattered about 800 kilometers (500 miles) across the equator and is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels due to the climate crisis.
Muiz, 45, a former construction minister, has promised to address the challenge by reclaiming land and building the island higher, but environmentalists say such measures could worsen the risk of flooding. It is claimed that there is.
He has also vowed to end the country’s “India First” policy, which has strained relations with New Delhi. The Maldives government has asked dozens of Indian military personnel who fly reconnaissance planes provided by India for border security to leave the country, a move that accelerates the Maldives’ pivot towards China. Critics point out that it could lead to
This month, with parliamentary election campaigning in full swing, Muiz awarded high-profile infrastructure contracts to Chinese state-owned companies.
Opposition parties, which have criticized the Muiz government over its foreign policy and economic management, had called for accountability in the election.
However, the PNC succeeded in winning important seats in former Democratic strongholds such as the capital Male, Addu city, and Kulhudufushi city in the north.
Preliminary figures show that the Democratic Party, founded by former President Mohamed Nasheed after splitting with the Democratic Party in 2023, lost all its seats, while the new party of former President Abdulla Yameen, whose corruption conviction was overturned just days ago, also contested. They lost all their seats. Results and media predictions.
According to the Election Commission, the country recorded a turnout of 72.9%, which was lower than the 82% recorded in the previous general election in 2019.
