Consider the evidence: Does India, at last, have a friend in the Maldives?

Until the transfer of power takes place, the world is holding its breath. Once Solih becomes president, a new chapter will begin - for the Maldives and also India

Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) won the presidential elections last week but there has been an inexplicable delay by the Election Commission in announcing the final result. Meanwhile, the Army has ‘clarified’ it has no intention of interceding in the ‘result of the people’. That it needed to clear the air is significant in itself. 

First, about the country

The Maldives was a single-party state till 2008. The executive was in charge of the civil service, the security forces, the judiciary and had control over parliament, People’s Majlis, through a ‘constitutionally appointed’ group of MPs. The country