MALÉ, Maldives: Pro-China candidate Mohamed Muizzu won Saturday’s presidential election in the Maldives, a result set to once again upend the archipelago’s relationship with traditional benefactor India.
Muizzu, 45, helms a party that presided over an influx of Chinese loans when it last held power in the atoll nation, better known for its luxury beach resorts and celebrity tourists.
He won 54.06 percent of the vote in the run-off contest, prompting incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to concede defeat shortly before midnight.
“Congratulations to president-elect Muizzu,” Solih wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I also congratulate the people who have shown a peaceful and democratic process.”
Muizzu made a brief appearance outside his party’s campaign headquarters to urge supporters not to celebrate until Sunday morning, when campaign restrictions officially come to an end.
Solih, 61, will serve as caretaker president until his successor is inaugurated on November 17.
The result upends Solih’s efforts to revert the country’s diplomatic posture back toward New Delhi since taking office five years ago.
Muizzu played a pivotal role in an earlier government’s development program, bankrolled in part by financial largesse from China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
He told a meeting with Chinese Communist Party officials last year that his party’s return to office would “script a further chapter of strong ties between our two countries.”
The Maldives sits in a strategically vital position in the middle of the Indian Ocean, astride one of the world’s busiest east-west shipping lanes.
Muizzu’s mentor, former president Abdulla Yameen, borrowed heavily from China for construction projects and spurned India.
Solih was elected in 2018 on the back of discontent with Yameen’s increasingly autocratic rule, accusing him of pushing the country into a Chinese debt trap.
Yameen’s turn toward Beijing had also alarmed New Delhi, which shares concerns with the United States and its allies about China’s growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean.
India is a member of the strategic Quad alliance alongside the United States, Australia and Japan.
But Solih’s restoration of the Maldives’ traditional posture itself proved controversial, with many in the archipelago disapproving of India’s outsized political and economic clout.
Muizzu has vowed to free Yameen, currently serving an 11-year sentence for corruption on the same prison island where he had jailed many of his political opponents during his tenure.
In his brief appearance Saturday, Muizzu urged the outgoing president to use his executive power and transfer Yameen to house arrest.
Turnout in Saturday’s poll was 85 percent, slightly higher than the first-round vote held earlier this month.
Watchdog group Transparency Maldives said there had been some incidents of “electoral violence,” without specifying further details.
Officials said one voter broke open a plastic ballot box, but the ballots were saved and there was no interruption to the count.
Police reported arresting 14 people, mostly for taking photographs of their marked ballot papers and sharing them on social media.
Pro-China candidate wins Maldives presidency
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Pro-China candidate wins Maldives presidency
- The Maldives sits in a strategically vital position in the middle of the Indian Ocean, astride one of the world’s busiest east-west shipping lanes
Beijing slams ‘groundless accusations’ after Ukraine summons Chinese envoy
“China firmly opposes groundless accusations and political manipulation,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press conference in response to a question about China’s ambassador being summoned by Kyiv.
Pope Francis’s coffin arrives in Saint Peter’s Basilica to lie in state
- Heads of state are expected for Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday in St. Peter’s Square
- The three days of public viewing are largely for ordinary Catholics to grieve the pontiff
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis’s body arrived at Saint Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday to lie in state before his weekend funeral.
The late pope’s open wooden coffin was carried by pallbearers the 500 meters from the Casa Santa Marta where he lived and died, behind a procession of red-robed cardinals.
Heads of state are expected for the funeral Saturday in St. Peter’s Square, but the three days of public viewing are largely for ordinary Catholics to grieve the 88-year-old pope, who died Monday after suffering a stroke.
Francis first lay in state in the Santa Marta Domus in a private viewing for Vatican residents and the papal household. Images released by the Vatican on Tuesday showed Francis lying in an open casket, wearing the traditional pointed headdress of bishops and red robes, his hands folded over a rosary. The Vatican’s No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was pictured praying by Francis.
Italian police have tightened security for the viewing and the funeral, carrying out foot and horse patrols around the Vatican, where pilgrims continued to arrive for the Holy Year celebrations that Francis opened in December. The faithful who walk through St. Peter’s Holy Door are granted indulgences, a way to help atone for sins.
“For me, Pope Francis represents a great pastor, as well as a great friend to all of us,’’ said Micale Sales, visiting St. Peter’s Basilica from Brazil.
“I think he spread a positive message around the world, saying there shouldn’t be any violence, there should be peace around the world,’’ said Amit Kukreja, from Australia.
The funeral has been set for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, and will be attended by leaders including US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky.
Cardinals are continuing their meetings this week to plan the conclave to elect Francis’ successor, make other decisions about running the Catholic Church as world leaders and the ordinary faithful grieve the pontiff’s death.
History’s first Latin American pontiff charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated many conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change. He last appeared in public on Sunday with an Easter blessing and popemobile tour through a cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
He had some reservations about looping through the square packed with 50,000 faithful, Vatican News reported on Tuesday, but overcame them – and was thankful that he had greeted the crowd. He died the next morning.
“The death of a pope is not a small thing, because we’ve lost our leader,’’ said Julio Henrique from Brazil. “But still, in a few days, we will have a new leader. So … the thing of hope remains. Who will assume Peter’s throne?”
China-led lunar base to include nuclear power plant on moon’s surface, space official
- The world’s second largest economy is aiming to become a major space power and land astronauts on the moon by 2030
SHANGHAI: Preliminary plans for the China and Russia-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) include building a nuclear reactor on the moon’s surface, a presentation by a Chinese space official on Wednesday showed.
The presentation by Pei Zhaoyu, chief engineer for China’s 2028 Chang’e-8 mission, showed that the base’s energy supply could also depend on large-scale solar arrays, which would be built on the moon’s surface.
China’s Chang’e-8 mission aims to lay the groundwork for the construction of a permanent manned lunar base. The world’s second largest economy is aiming to become a major space power and land astronauts on the moon by 2030.
China’s timeline to build an outpost on the moon’s south pole coincides with NASA’s more ambitious and advanced Artemis program, which aims to put US astronauts back on the lunar surface in December 2025.
Wu Weiren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Project, said last year that a “basic model” of the ILRS, with the South Pole of the Moon as its core, would be built by 2035.
The Chang’e lunar probe launches are part of the construction phase for the “basic model” outlined by Wu.
In future, China will create the “555 Project”, inviting 50 countries, 500 international scientific research institutions, and 5,000 overseas researchers to join the ILRS.
Russia destroys energy facility in Ukraine’s Kherson
- The drone attacks are continuing and there could be emergency power cuts
DUBAI:Russian forces destroyed an energy facility in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson early on Wednesday, the regional governor said.
Oleksandr Prokudin said the facility, which provided the city of Kherson with electricity, had come under Russian artillery and drone attacks for more than 24 hours.
“Our military fought all night to repel the enemy attacks. However, in the morning, the Russians succeeded in destroying the energy facility,” Prokudin said on Telegram.
The drone attacks are continuing and there could be emergency power cuts as energy workers are working to stabilize the situation, he added.
China’s Xi says tariffs ‘hurt’ multilateral trade
- China responded with a 125 percent duty on goods from the United States.
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday tariffs “hurt” the multilateral trading system as he hosted his Azerbaijani counterpart for talks in Beijing, state media said.
Tariff and trade wars “undermine the legitimate rights and interests of all countries, hurt the multilateral trading system, and impact the world economic order,” he told Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Beijing and Washington have been embroiled in a blistering trade war since US President Donald Trump this month slapped a 145 percent blanket tax on Chinese imports.
China responded with a 125 percent duty on goods from the United States.
Beijing’s commerce ministry this week warned other nations to be wary in seeking a deal with Washington.
“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” a ministry spokesperson said Monday in a statement.
“Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, Xi said that “despite a constantly changing international situation,” China and Azerbaijan had maintained close ties.
A day earlier, in phone calls with his British and Austrian counterparts, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi urged Britain and the European Union to help in defending multilateral trade.
