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NEW DELHI – The opposition candidate proclaimed Sunday the presidential election victory in the Maldives, an unexpected blow against the authoritarian leader of the country, who tried to consolidate power by imprisoning opponents and overthrowing the judicial system.
Known for their pristine beaches and turquoise waters, the Maldives is an archipelago off the southwestern coast of India, whose strategic position makes it the center of influence of much larger countries.
Its outgoing president, Abdulla Yameen, has courted major loans and investments from China and Saudi Arabia to the chagrin of countries like India and the United States. At the same time, he became more and more autocratic, repressing dissent and undermining parliament.
Yameen's opponent, a former parliamentarian named Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Democratic Party of the Maldives, declared the victory in a press conference Sunday. Solih represented a coalition of four opposition parties whose leaders are in detention or in exile.
"This is the first successful step on the road to justice," Solih told reporters, calling on the president to immediately begin an orderly transition of power. "We did it thanks to the hard work of the Maldivians."
It received 58% of the votes cast, according to preliminary results recorded by the local media, the official results not yet announced.
The opposition candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, arrives at a polling station to vote in the capital, Male, on Sunday. (Ahmed Shurau / AFP / Getty Images)
Home to 400,000 people, the Maldives is a small country of considerable importance. Its location makes it a prize for powers like China and India seeking to expand their influence in the Indian Ocean, through which waters a large part of world trade passes.
Picturesque islands are also facing an existential threat of climate change. And Islamic extremist groups, which have recruited men from the predominantly Muslim Maldives to join their ranks in Syria and Iraq, face another type of danger.
The country's experience in democracy is only ten years old. In 2008, Mohamed Nasheed became the country's first democratically elected leader after three decades of dictatorship.
A former pro-democracy activist, Nasheed held a memorable Cabinet underwater meeting to highlight the danger of sea level rise. But he was forced to resign under obscure circumstances and then fled into exile.
Before Sunday's vote, many Maldives feared that the result would be rigged in favor of Yameen, the incumbent.
Maldives President Abdulla Yameen voted Sunday in a polling station during the presidential election in Male. (Reuters)
In the months leading up to the elections, international observers said Yameen had been working to quell the opposition to his candidacy. intimidating and imprisoning critics under broad anti-terrorism and anti-defamation laws. Yameen defended measures as necessary for national security.
In February, Yameen declared the state of emergency and arrested two judges of the Supreme Court as well as a former president – his half-brother – who had joined the opposition. Later, he installed a close ally to lead the country's electoral commission.
The vote took place in an environment of "massive mistrust," said Mariyam Shiuna, executive director of Transparency Maldives, an anti-corruption group. "No losing party would be willing to accept the results."
According to early indications, the ruling party would respect the election results. But Shiuna noted that the Supreme Court has canceled the results of a presidential election in the past. The next few days will be critical.
Ahmed Nihan, a member of the ruling Maldives' Progressive Party of Maldives, wrote on Twitter that his party's results "will have the courage to accept the Maldivian people's decision to win or lose."
On Sunday, voters queued for hours to vote in busy elections. Some complained that the process was tainted by a lack of organization and preparation.
"There is the feeling that all this is intentional," said Ahmed Afrah Ismail, 26, an engineer who has voted in the densely populated capital city of Malé and said he has seen people abandon their posts in frustration.
Aminath Juman, 18, voted for the first time on Sunday and is worried about post-election protests, regardless of the winner. "We should all be ready," she said.
Under the Yameen government, the Maldives moved closer to China and Saudi Arabia. Last year, China and the Maldives signed a free trade agreement, a first for the Maldives. China also lent money for the revision of the international airport and financed the construction of a bridge.
The opposition leader, Nasheed – who lives in exile in Sri Lanka – wrote this year that "island by island, island by island, the Maldives are sold to China".
Corruption has also flourished under the Yameen government. The former tourism minister reportedly leased more than 50 islands and lagoons to developers in 2014 and 2015 without a call for public offerings, as required by law. In contrast, only 100 stations have been built in the last four decades.
Yameen has posed a challenge to India and Western countries. In July, the European Union threatened to impose sanctions on the Maldivian authorities responsible for "serious human rights violations" or "violations of the rule of law". The Maldives withdrew from the Commonwealth, an association of former British colonies The Yameen government for the erosion of democratic freedoms.
India in particular has struggled to respond to the decline in authoritarianism in the Maldives. Last month, an Indian MP inflamed things by saying on Twitter that India must "invade" if the elections were rigged, forcing the Indian government to publicly disavow such a move.
Isha Afeef in Malé, Maldives, contributed to this report.
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