The Washington Post-In blow to India pro-China candidate wins Maldives election
October 1, 2023 5 min 872 words
这篇报道描绘了马尔代夫总统选举的结果，其中一位被普遍视为亲华的反对派候选人获胜，对印度在这个岛国的影响力构成重大损失。穆罕默德·穆伊祖在周六的选举中获得了54%的选票，而现任总统易卜拉欣·穆罕默德·索利赫仅获得了46%的选票。这标志着印度在这个印度洋岛国的影响力遭受了打击。 这场选举凸显了亚洲最小国家之一的亲印度和亲中国阵营之间的激烈分歧。印度和中国都在这个印度洋岛国拥有影响力，对于贸易和安全都具有战略重要性。美国近年来也优先提升了与马尔代夫的关系，并上个月派遣了首位常驻大使前职外交官雨和荣前往马尔代夫。这一举措标志着美国对马尔代夫的重视。 反对派候选人穆伊祖的胜利引发了一些印度评论家的尖锐评论，他们认为这是印度在自己的后院遭遇的重大外交挫折。这一胜利似乎受到了“伊斯兰主义选民”的影响，而在主要是穆斯林的马尔代夫，与印度有关的情感与去年在马累举办的印度赞助的瑜伽活动袭击有关。这次袭击中，一些袭击者挥舞着穆伊祖的马尔代夫进步党旗帜，还携带标语称瑜伽违反伊斯兰教教义。 总的来说，这次选举结果标志着印度在马尔代夫的影响力下降，而亲华候选人的胜利可能会改变该国的对外政策走向。不过，新当选的总统穆伊祖似乎表现出愿意维持与印度等国的友好关系，这对于马尔代夫及其邻国的稳定和繁荣至关重要。
2023-10-01T13:27:06.303Z
An opposition candidate widely seen as pro-China won a runoff election to be the next president of the Maldives, marking a significant loss for Indian influence in the archipelagic nation.
Mohamed Muizzu received 54 percent of the votes cast in Saturday’s election, the Elections Commission of the Maldives said on Sunday after almost all votes had been counted, compared with 46 percent for the incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
“Congratulations to president-elect Muizzu,” Solih wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, after conceding defeat on Sunday.
In a statement celebrating his win, Muizzu emphasized that the people of the Maldives should put aside their differences and work together. “With today’s result, we have got the opportunity to build the country’s future. The strength to ensure the freedom of Maldives,” he said.
The vote in Maldives highlighted a bitter divide between pro-India and pro-China camps in Asia’s smallest country. India and China hold sway in the island nation in the Indian Ocean, which has a little over 400,000 inhabitants spread across the archipelago and sits in a strategically important location for both trade and security.
The United States has also prioritized improving relations with the Maldives in recent years, and last month sent career diplomat Hugo Yue-Ho Yon to become the first resident ambassador there. The U.S. government previously maintained diplomatic relations through its embassy in Sri Lanka.
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The State Department congratulated Muizzu on his election win on Sunday. The United States “looks forward to deepening our partnership with Maldives and expanding our people-to-people ties,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Muizzu. “India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested India-Maldives bilateral relationship,” Modi wrote on X.
The incumbent, Solih, has been in power since 2018 and pushed for closer relations with New Delhi under an “India First” policy that included seeking new trade agreements and allowing India to operate a small military attachment on Maldives territory.
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Solih’s push was a shift from the policies of his predecessor, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who led the country between 2013 and 2018. Yameen steered the country closer to Beijing, supporting major infrastructure projects with Chinese funding through the Belt and Road Initiative.
Advocacy groups accused Yameen of human rights abuses during his tenure, and after losing office in 2018, he was sent to prison on bribery and money laundering charges that his supporters claimed were politically motivated.
The 45-year-old Muizzu, a former construction minister and current mayor of the capital, Malé, was not an obvious choice for a presidential candidate — but he stepped in after a court ruled that Yameen could not run.
An ally of Yameen’s, he had helped oversee several major infrastructure projects, including a $200 million, Chinese-funded bridge that linked the capital with the Maldives’ main airport.
Muizzu campaigned on an “India Out” platform, arguing that the military presence in the Maldives undermined its sovereignty and pledging to expel all Indian military personnel. He also capitalized on widespread discontent with the country’s low economic performance and leaned into more nationalist rhetoric.
Muizzu won the first round of the presidential vote last month; a second runoff vote was held after no candidate received an absolute majority.
On Sunday, Yameen was transferred from prison to house arrest. Muizzu had pledged to release the former president should he win the election.
Muizzu’s victory drew sharp comments from Indian commentators. Brahma Chellaney, a former member of India’s national security advisory board and an outspoken critic of Beijing, wrote on X that it was an “important diplomatic setback for India in its own backyard” and was influenced by the “Islamist vote.”
Anti-Indian sentiment in the predominantly Muslim Maldives was linked to an attack on a New Delhi-sponsored yoga event in Malé last year. Some of the attackers carried flags of Muizzu’s Progressive Party of Maldives, as well as signs that said yoga was against the teachings of Islam, according to reports in Indian media.
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Indian influence in the Maldives has traditionally been strong, with New Delhi sending troops to the island in 1988 to thwart a coup attempt that would have ousted the dictator it was backing, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (Gayoom was eventually removed from power 30 years later, in 2008, after the country’s first democratic election).
In 2018, an Indian member of Parliament had publicly suggested that India should “invade” the Maldives if the elections were rigged, which the government swiftly disavowed.
In interviews with the Indian publication the Wire, allies of Muizzu said the president-elect was not seeking to disrupt relations with New Delhi and would likely make his first international visit to India, as other Maldives presidents have done.
“We should be able to continue to enjoy cordial relations with India or for that matter with any country without the need to have boots on the ground,” said Ahmed Mohamed, who served as Maldives’ ambassador to India during the Yameen government.