Maldivians give Muizzu a clear mandate and control over Parliament

While many voters are registered with opposing parties, they seem to have preferred to give Muizzu a chance to complete his agenda.

Maldivian President Muizzu’s party won a landslide victory in parliamentary election in Maldives on April 21. | Photo Credit: Amr Alfiky

Defying predictions, the Maldivian President, Mohamed Muizzu’s minuscule political party, the People’s National Congress (PNC), won a landslide victory in the April 21 Parliamentary election, giving Muizzu the legitimacy he needs to steer the country, which has been at loggerheads with India ever since he was voted to power about six months ago.

The President needs the consent of the Parliament on crucial legislation and to approve his critical appointments. The Maldives has a system of executive Presidency, but the Parliament is not a rubber stamp; it needs to endorse most of the actions of the President. Traditionally, Presidents have cut deals or have bought over opposition members to ensure that their agenda got passed. 

As many as 368 candidates were in the fray for the 93 seats in the People’s Majlis (Parliament), in which just over two lakh people cast their votes across 602 polling stations. Though many voters are registered with other opposing political parties, they seem to have preferred to give Muizzu a chance to complete his agenda, which includes moving away from the ‘India-first’ policy of his predecessor, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Just ahead of the vote, Muizzu had asked the people to “give him the opportunity to produce results… Nothing else matters.” Three days before the election, Muizzu had another shot in the arm: the Maldives High Court overturned his one-time idol former President Yameen Abdulla’s 11 year jail sentence. This was widely seen as a gesture on the part of the President—even though the verdict was by a Court—and added to Muizzu’s credibility as a person who can deliver on his promises.

Muizzu’s party, the PNC, won 68 of the 93 seats, while the party’s allies secured another three seats. The Maldives National Party and the Maldives Development Alliance are the two allies of PNC. The PNC contested in 90 seats, the Maldives-based online news portal, Sun reported.

The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which had the supermajority in the last Parliament, was reduced to 10 seats. MDP had contested 89 seats. The Jumhooree Party won one of the 11 seats it contested while 11 independent candidates won. MDP’s breakaway party, the Democrats failed to secure a single seat. The Adaalat Party too failed to win any seat, marking a sea-change in the political party landscape of Maldives.

Celebrations by PNC men began as soon as the first results came in on April 21 night, and continued into a formal event on April 22 evening. The victory has witnessed the effective death of one of the most important political parties in the Maldives, Yameen’s former party, the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). PPM endorsed Muizzu ahead of the 2023 Presidential election, when Yameen was in prison on corruption charges. Yameen resigned from the party, and later announced that he was floating his own party. But that party could not make an impression in the 2024 Parliamentary polls because it could not be registered in time ahead of the election. 

The election calls to question the leadership skills of former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, as well as the future of the party that he so tactfully captured from former President Mohamed Nasheed. While MDP cadre were willing to accept the fact that Solih couldn’t win a second consecutive Presidential term in 2023, murmurs have it that some of the frontline leaders are unhappy with Solih’s leadership ahead of the Parliamentary election.

A former diplomat and MDP member, Mohamed Faisal, conceding defeat, said that this was not the end of the road: “While the results were not what we hoped for, @MDPSecretariat always remains committed to democratic ideals and the people of Maldives. True progress takes perseverance & unity,” he posted on X.

On April 22, China-based Global Times reported that China congratulated the Maldives on the “smooth conduct of the parliamentary election” and that it “fully respected the choices made by the people of the Maldives.” The Chinese Foreign Minister was quoted by Global Times as saying that China was “willing to work with the Maldives to maintain the traditional friendship between the two countries, expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Maldives.”

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal called for a change in approach towards the Maldives: “Muizzu’s landslide win in parliamentary election badly upends India’s soft stance towards his provocations to avoid giving him reasons to bait India before polls. Show anti-India, pro-China mood has deeper public support. Change of approach needed,” he posted on X.

Many hawks such as Sibal are advocating a tougher approach to Maldives, unmindful of the fact that the problems between Maldives and India are of recent origin, specifically after Indian right-wing trolls called for a boycott of Maldives as a tourist destination. According to Maldivian statistics, Indian tourist numbers have plummeted but the numbers are being made up by tourists from China, which turned on a tap following a request from Muizzu earlier this year.