Maldives: MDP headed for big win in parliamentary polls

Maldives: MDP headed for big win in parliamentary polls

1. Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) has got an overwhelming majority in the parliamentary elections held recently.
2. Preliminary results have shown that the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) led by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and former President Mohamed Nasheed have won more than 60 seats in the 87-member parliament.
3. This is for the first time when a single party has won the majority on its own in Parliament since multi-party democracy was established in 2008.
4. Further, In the run up to the polls, Maldives Democratic Party had promised voters to investigate debts to China, which it fears could run as high as $3 billion and risk sinking the economy.
5. The increased Chinese investments in the Maldives had made India wary given that India has traditionally held the Indian Ocean region as part of its strategic sphere of influence.
6. Former President Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 but he had left the Maldives a year later, after being granted prison leave for medical treatment in Britain. The charges were dropped by the Supreme Court after President Solih came into power, with judges saying there was no basis for the charges.