By Suda Ramachandran
From the article:
Just days after Maldivians poured into the streets of the Maldivian capital, Male, to celebrate the defeat of the archipelago’s autocratic President Abdulla Yameen in the September 23 presidential elections, the mood in the country turned somewhat somber. After initially conceding defeat to joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Yameen appeared to be preparing to subvert the election verdict to hold on to power.
Such fears gathered momentum with the Election Commission dragging its feet on announcing the final results. Besides, Yameen was reported to be planning to challenge the verdict in the Maldives’ High Court and had apparently instructed loyal police officers to prepare reports backing up his claim that the election was rigged in his opponent’s favor.
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During Yameen’s rule, the Maldives’ relations with China expanded to unprecedented levels. Male signed a Free Trade Agreement with Beijing in December 2017 and a Memorandum of Understanding that brings it into the Maritime Silk Road, a key component of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese companies were given contracts for several infrastructure projects in the Maldives, including the recently inaugurated Sinamale Bridge linking Male to Hulhule Island, and a 1,000-apartment housing project on Hulhumale, a suburb that Beijing built on reclaimed land.
The Yameen government disclosed little about the cost of these projects or the terms of the Chinese loans. However, according to the Center for Global Development, a Washington D.C. based think-tank, China’s loans to the Maldives could be around $1.3 billion – more than a quarter of the latter’s Gross Domestic Product.
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