Pro-China party in Maldives wins parliamentary elections by large margin, ends 'India First' policy

The pro-China People's National Party won the parliamentary elections in the Maldives with a very large majority on Monday. The Associated Press news agency reported that Mohammed Moiso's party, which was elected president last year, won 70 of the 93 seats and now has absolute power over Parliament. Thanks to a PNC victory, the Indian Ocean archipelago will strengthen its ties with China, while the country increasingly ignores the other Asian superpower, India. The India-focused opposition party MDP fell from 65 to 12 seats.

China and India watched the parliamentary elections with great interest. The archipelago is located in a very strategic location in the Indian Ocean, on important trade and shipping routes between Europe, Africa and East Asia, among others. In recent years, both countries have provided millions of loans to the Maldives for infrastructure projects. This would save China and India millions in the long run.

Last October, it became clear that the Maldives would return to Chinese areas of influence. Mwizo won the presidential election – he got more than 50% of the vote – promising, among other things, to re-engage with Chinese investors. At the beginning of this year, Moiso visited China, where he negotiated, among other things, an increase in the number of flights from this country to the Maldives. He wants tourism from China to get a boost.

New Silk Road

China already had significant influence in the Maldives between 2013 and 2018. Under the leadership of then President Abdulla Yameen, the Maldives, like dozens of other countries on several continents, joined the East Asian country's New Silk Road. China subsequently implemented many infrastructure projects. Therefore, the archipelago has debts of at least $1.4 billion (1.3 billion euros) owed to the country of President Xi Jinping.

In 2018, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the presidential elections, contrary to expectations. He brought about a change by giving India power and allowing investments in the archipelago. Likewise, the Maldives incurred similar debts with India. This gave Moizu the opportunity to persuade the majority of voters in the Maldives – some 550,000 people living in the Asian archipelago – to give China influence again.

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