India-China power play dominates Maldives runoff vote
Maldives votes in a presidential runoff on Saturday that could drastically rebalance its relations with India and China, two regional giants competing for influence in the geopolitical hotspot.
The atoll nation of nearly 1,200 coral islets is a prestige tourism hotspot and favourite beach holiday destination for the world's rich and famous.
It also sits in a strategically vital position in the middle of the Indian Ocean, astride one of the world's busiest east-west shipping lanes.
Frontrunner Mohamed Muizzu's party moved into Beijing's orbit while last in office and was an eager recipient of financial largesse from China's Belt and Road infrastructure programme.
Muizzu, the 45-year-old mayor of Male, spearheaded the $200 million China-backed bridge linking the capital to the country's main airport while in the last government.
He won just over 46 percent of the first round earlier this month while incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who presided over the restoration of ties with traditional benefactor India, trailed at 39 percent.
But with only 283,000 eligible voters, and barely 15,000 votes between the pair, former foreign minister Ahmed Shaheed told AFP the contest was on a knife's edge.
«The mood in the Maldives suggests that the two candidates are narrowing their gap,» Shaheed said.
«This is going to be a very, very close race.»
Solih won office in 2018 on the back of discontent with his autocratic predecessor Abdullah Yameen, an ally of Muizzu's who is now serving an 11-year prison sentence for corruption.
He had accused Yameen of pushing the country into a Chinese debt trap by borrowing heavily for infrastructure.
Yameen's turn towards Beijing had alarmed New Delhi, which shares Western concern at China's
