As India-Maldives relations continue to be in turmoil, developments in the capital Male have raised international concerns as local issues influence voting patterns in any country, even if evidence is required. This proves once again that this is not just rhetoric.
On January 13, 58 days after former Male’ mayor Mohamed Muiz was elected president, Male’ citizens overwhelmingly rejected his election of Azima Shakoor to the mayoral position, and rejected his rival Maldives Democratic Party (Democratic Democratic Party of Maldives). MDP) Representative Mr. Adam was elected. Azim.
Apart from establishing how a country’s voters are affected, this election also overturned two widespread assumptions. The first is that the country’s strategic decisions lead to positive or negative votes, and the second is that the Democratic Party has weakened after Democratic losses. The second round of presidential elections will be held in November 2023.
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These two developments are of great significance as the Maldives prepares for further elections on March 17, this time to elect members of parliament. The Democratic Party recaptured Male Island, home to more than a third of the country’s population. The party has proven that it can survive even if its leader, Ibrahim Solih, is not a charismatic leader.
mayor’s victory
Adam Azim’s victory was also made possible by the support of non-Democratic voters. Notably, he had the support of two members of Maumoon’s former president Abdul Gayoom’s family. And his son Faris Mamoun believes in clean politics and connects with people.
Amid the uncertainty of the India-Maldives dispute, many observers within India and abroad cited strategic issues as a factor influencing electoral choices in the thousand-island country. The most cited was: “Muiz won the presidential election on an anti-India (or ‘India out’) platform.” That theory is now being questioned.
In fact, Muiz did his best to influence the election outcome, using both anti-India rhetoric and development policies. In late December, he said on a radio program that he had appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite the completion of the 6.7km-long Tiramale Bridge project, which connects Male Island to other major islands, by 2025. India is supporting construction of the $500 million bridge. Project: $400 million in loans and $100 million in grants.
Mr. Muiz promised more housing and was seen as an active, pragmatic president, trudging through muddy roads in the rain. The campaign was subtle, but hard to miss in the run-up to the mayoral race.
“On January 13, Muiz thinly veiledly referred to India, saying, “We may be small, but we will not be bullied,” and claiming that “the Indian Ocean is not in anyone’s backyard.” .
While Muiz sought to move closer to development policy, he did not want to antagonize his base among voters of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). They had been seduced by a new party launched by PPM founder and former president Abdullah Yameen. He continued to talk about “India out”, but after January 6, he was spurred on that path by the Indian right-wing attack on the Maldives as a tourist destination.
In fact, that is why Mr. Muiz decided to counter Mr. Yameen by taking a much harsher anti-India stance than Mr. Yameen, and as a result, members of PPM, the Maldives’ second-largest political party, I turned over to his side. It was a case of a politician using geopolitics as an opportunity to expand his local support base.
After meeting with Prime Minister Modi in Dubai on December 1, Muiz made no mention of Indian troops’ withdrawal from the Maldives in press releases from both sides, but the following day, after landing on Male Island, Muiz announced that India would withdraw its troops from the Maldives. He claimed to have agreed. And in mid-December, the Maldives decided not to renew the 2019 joint hydrographic survey with India, with the agreement expiring in 2023.
On January 14 this year, Muiz demanded that all Indian military personnel leave the Maldives by March 15.
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Maldives President Mohamed Muiz did his best to influence the outcome of the Male mayoral election, using both anti-India rhetoric and development policies.
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On January 14 this year, Muiz demanded that all Indian military personnel leave the Maldives by March 15.
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A former Maldivian government official said India-Maldives relations have never been this bad.
muiz flex
Muiz, who was already in China after the Indian right-wing’s relentless attacks on him and the Maldives in general, said that the 2017 China Free Trade Agreement had been put in cold storage after Ibrahim Sourih was elected in 2018. He declared that he would implement the agreement.
On January 13, Muiz made a thinly veiled reference to India, saying, “We may be small, but we will not be bullied,” and claiming that “the Indian Ocean is not in anyone’s backyard.”
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A former Maldivian official, who did not wish to be named due to the circumstances, acknowledged that Muiz’s comments may have been “immature”, but said that India is not concerned about Maldives officials being aggressive on X (formerly Twitter). When I raised the issue of posting such things, I also pointed out the following. While Prime Minister Modi and Indians in general were also disciplined and suspended, India has not taken similar action against online trolls.
“No action has been taken against people in India for this vicious attack on the Maldives, its people and officials,” he said, adding that there was no acknowledgment from the Indian side that something of this kind had happened. He added that there wasn’t even one.
According to his assessment, and that of another official with a much longer tenure in the Maldives government, relations between India and the Maldives have never been this bad.
Asked how this compares to 2012, when the Maldives canceled its contract with airport operator GMR, he said: “This is a culmination of several things from 2012.”