‘Pro China’ Mohamed Muizzu wins Maldivian Presidential elections

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate Mohamed Muizzu, gained the Maldivian presidential elections on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported citing native media.
This was the second spherical of polling after no candidate emerged clear winner within the first spherical.

Muizzu had emerged because the frontrunner within the first spherical with round 46 per cent votes, adopted by Ibrahim Solih’s 39 per cent. Al Jazeera reported citing a number of native media platforms that Muizzu has gained with greater than 53 per cent of the vote, after the tallying of outcomes of all 586 poll bins.

After the thumping win, the Maldives president-elect delivered a short assertion at his occasion’s headquarters, thanking all those that voted for him and calling on the federal government to launch former President Abdulla Yameen, who’s serving an 11-year jail sentence on a corruption conviction.

“Today is a very happy day…I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the Maldivian people. This outcome today is a huge encouragement for us in our pursuit to build a better future for our country, and to ensure the sovereignty of our nation,” Al Jazeera quoted him as saying.

“Yameen, the leader of the PPM, must be released”, Muizzu mentioned. “The president has the power to transfer [Yameen] home imprisonment. And doing so, I believe, is the best action that can be taken in our nation’s interests,” he added.

Notably, Muizzu and his is taken into account ‘pro-China’ due to the large Chinese loans by the nation, below the earlier PPM authorities. After the outcomes, Maldives President Ibrahim Solih conceded defeat in Saturday’s run-off vote and congratulated Muizzu.

“Congratulations to the winner of the presidential election @MMuizzu. Thank you for the beautiful democratic example shown by the people in the elections. Thank you to the MDP and AP members who worked together and to all the people who voted for me,” he posted on X (previously Twitter).

Maldives Foreign Minister and Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chief Abdulla Shahid additionally congratulated Muizzu and in addition thanked President Ibrahim Solih for his tenure.

“Congratulations to President-elect Dr @MMuizzu for winning the Presidential Election 2023. Many congratulations and much gratitude to President @ibusolih, for the many seeds of hope he had sown over the last 5 years, which will surely reap much prosperity for our country and people,” he posted on X.
Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed additionally congratulated Muizzu on his obvious second spherical victory.
“Congratulations, President-elect Dr. @MMuizzu”, he posted on X.

Muizzu is at present serving because the mayor of the capital, Male. He holds a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Leeds within the United Kingdom. He was the Minister of Housing in former President Abdulla Yameen’s cabinet, in response to Al Jazeera.

Notably, Solih’s defeat to Muizzu marks the primary time Maldivians have voted out a liberal democratic authorities in favour of an authoritarian challenger because the nation held its first multi-party elections in 2008, Al Jazeera reported.

The end result additionally marks a stark reversal of fortune for Solih, who gained the final election in 2018 by a landslide, amid widespread anger over human rights abuses and corruption below his predecessor.

(This information report is printed from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content material has not been written or edited by OpIndia workers)