Maldives backs Mohamed Muizzu's 'India Out' push, his party secures landslide win in Sunday's polls

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu's party won control of parliament in a Sunday election landslide, with voters backing his tilt towards China and away from India. Muizzu's People's National Congress (PNC) secured more than two thirds in the 93-member parliament.

The win comes amid deteriorating ties between the island and India since Muizzu, 45, assumed power in November last year. During last year’s presidential election, he had maintained a strident anti-India stand.

The PNC secured 66 out of 86 declared, a super-majority. The formal ratification of the results is expected to take a week and the new assembly is to be in office from early May.

The vote was seen as a crucial test for Muizzu's plan to press ahead with closer economic cooperation with China, including building thousands of apartments on controversially reclaimed land.

The PNC and its allies had only eight seats in the outgoing parliament, with the lack of a majority stymieing Muizzu after his presidential election victory in September. The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) -- which had previously had a super-majority of its own -- scored close to a dozen seats.

The Maldives, a low-lying nation of some 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the equator, is one of the countries most vulnerable to sea level rises caused by global warming.

Muizzu, a former construction minister, has promised he will beat back the waves through ambitious land reclamation and building islands higher, a policy which environmentalists argue could even exacerbate flooding risks.

The Maldives is known as a top luxury holiday destination thanks to its pristine white beaches and secluded resorts.

But in recent years it has also become a geopolitical hotspot in the Indian Ocean, where global east-west shipping lanes pass the archipelago.

This month, as campaigning for the parliamentary elections was in full swing, Muizzu awarded high-profile infrastructure contracts to Chinese state-owned companies.

His administration is also in the process of sending home a garrison of 89 Indian troops who operate reconnaissance aircraft gifted by New Delhi to patrol the Maldives' vast maritime borders.

The outgoing parliament, dominated by the pro-India MDP of Muizzu's immediate predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has sought to disrupt his efforts to realign Maldivian diplomacy.

Since Muizzu came to power, lawmakers blocked three of his nominees to the cabinet and refused some of his spending proposals.

"Geopolitics is very much in the background as parties campaign for votes in Sunday's election," a senior Muizzu aide said. "He came to power on a promise to send back Indian troops and he is working on it. The parliament has not been cooperating with him since he came to power."