Pro-India opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has secured a landslide victory in the capital Male’s Mayoral election. On Saturday, the MDP candidate, Adam Azim, was elected as the new mayor of Male.
Local media reported Azim’s win as a landslide and victory by a large margin, in what is being seen as a setback to President Mohamed Muizzu, who resigned from the position to contest the presidential elections last year.
The MDP is headed by pro-India former president Mohammad Solih, who was defeated by Muizzu, a pro-China leader, in the presidential elections. With 41 boxes counted, Azim has taken a huge lead with 5,303 votes. His rival Aishath Azima Shakoor of Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) got 3,301 votes, Maldives’ Sun Online news portal reported.
The poll was marked by a low turnout, according to reports. The Mayoral election victory is expected to revive the political fortunes of the MDP, which still holds a majority in the Parliament. Muizzu returned to Male on Saturday after a five-day state visit to China. During the visit, Beijing promised to support Male’s efforts to “maintain national sovereignty” and opposed “external interference” in the Indian Ocean archipelago’s internal affairs.
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The Mayoral polls were held in the backdrop of derogatory comments posted by three deputy ministers of the Muizzu government against Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading to a diplomatic row with India. During his high-profile visit to China, Muizzu sought to align Maldives closer to Beijing.
Muizzu suspended the three ministers after their social media postings, which stirred concern in India and calls for a boycott by Indian tourists who ranked highest in numbers followed by Russia. Chinese tourists figured third in the list.
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Maldives President on Saturday said that his country’s small size doesn’t give anyone the license to bully it, in a sign of defiance toward India, the archipelago state’s giant neighbour. Muizzu, speaking to the media on his return from India’s regional rival China, said the Maldives is not in any country’s backyard and that the Indian Ocean does not belong to a single country — a reference to a recent tiff between India and Maldives.
“We may be small but that doesn’t give you the license to bully us,” Muizzu concluded in English, having made his statement in the native Dhivehi language. He was elected president last November on an “India Out” platform promising to remove some Indian military personnel stationed in the island nation.
(With agency inputs)
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