Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s Peoples National Congress political party (PNC) is set to win the 2024 parliamentary elections held in the island nation on April 21, 2024. The official results are expected to be declared on April 22, 2024.
Maldives local media reported that the PNC won 50 of the 93 seats in the 20th Peoples Majlis winning majority in the parliament. As per the report, the majority in the parliament is achieved by winning more than half the seats which is 47 seats and the super majority can be achieved by winning more than three fourth of seats i.e. 70 seats.
“The ruling PPM and PPC coalition also won the majority of the seats in the capital Male city in today’s parliamentary elections,” the Maldivian local media reported. Meanwhile another agency reported that of the 203 seats where counting is complete the PNC lead by Muizzu bagged 59 seats followed by the Maldivian Democratic Party at ten seats and independence nine seats.
The Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) won two seats, while the Jumhooree Party (JP) got one. The Democrats, Maldives National Party and the Adhaalath Party are yet to open their accounts. Voting for the Peoples Majlis was conducted on April 21, 2024, from 8:00AM to 5:30PM local time. Election officials have sealed the ballot boxes across the country, the as voting hours ended at 5:30PM, the local media reported.
President Mohamed Muizzu PNC fielded 90 candidates, MDP 89, Democrats 39, Jumhooree Party 10 candidates, Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) 4, Adhaalath Party (AP) 4, and Maldives National Party (MNP) two nominees.
As per the information released by the Election Commission of the Maldives, 207,693 people cast their ballots as of 5:00PM local time making for the voter turnout of 72.96 percent. This includes 104,826 men and 102,867 women voted. A total of 284,663 people were eligible to vote, a media agency reported.
A total of 602 ballot boxes were reportedly set up in the Maldives and three other countries for the parliamentary elections. The countries in which the voting ballot boxes were placed are Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, Colombo in Sri Lanka and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
This election is crucial for Mohamed Muizzu as just before the polls, the opposition parties demanded a probe and impeachment of the current president Muizzu following a leaked report of his alleged corruption activities from 2018. Muizzu, however, refuted the charges. Besides since Muizzu came to power, the lawmakers have blocked three of his nominees to the cabinet.
Muizzu is widely seen as a pro-China politician. He had run an India Out Campaign just ahead of being elected as the President of Maldives last year. Muizzu had won the Maldives presidential elections in October 2023. After taking over as the President of the Maldives, Muizzu had requested India to withdraw most of its military personnel manning three aviation platforms manning the country.
He also travelled to China and in January 2024, and met top Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping. China and the Maldives signed a defence cooperation agreement and several other infrastructure development projects. The Maldives is India’s key maritime neighbour and occupies a special place in its initiatives like the “SAGAR” (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the “Neighbourhood First Policy” of the Indian government.
On the other hand, China is expanding its footprints in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) through its debt trap diplomacy and “String of Pearls” approach to create a network of military and commercial establishments in countries falling in the Indian Ocean Region, a news agency reported.
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