On September 30, Maldivians selected their next president in a run-off between the top two finishers in the first round: Male Mayor Mohamed Muizzu and incumbent President Ibrahim Solih. Muizzu prevailed handily, with 54 percent of the vote, setting the stage for a transition of power.
It’s been an especially complex election cycle, featuring infighting in the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party and contestation within the opposition PPM-PNC coalition over the preferred candidate, all amid longer-standing concerns about free elections in Maldives’ young democracy. Meanwhile, the geopolitics of the election loomed large, with the PPM-PNC coalition undertaking a high-profile “India Out” campaign in recent years.
This webinar, recorded live on October 7, 2023, examines Maldives’ future, both in terms of domestic and foreign policy.
Featuring Mimrah Abdul Ghafoor, a columnist for The Diplomat and Maldivian native who has worked in Maldives’ President’s Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and JJ Robinson, a senior program officer at the Open Society Foundations Program on Independent Journalism, London, U.K. and the author of “Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical Autocracy.”