The Maldives heads for a parliamentary election on Saturday with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih seeking a majority for his party to investigate debts to China, which it fears could run as high as US$3 billion and risk sinking the economy.

Since he unseated pro-China leader Abdulla Yameen in September, Solih’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which has governed in a coalition with three other parties, has warned that a building boom has left huge debts to Chinese lenders.

The Maldives, a tropical archipelago in the Indian Ocean with some 260,000 voters, has been caught in a battle for influence between India and China, which invested millions of dollars during Yameen’s rule as part of its Belt and Road plan.

The MDP has pledged to investigate the infrastructure projects and determine the islands’ true debt to China, which it says could be as a high as US$3 billion. Yameen denies any wrongdoing in relation to the Chinese debt.

The MPD currently only has a majority with the support of its coalition partners, including The Jumhooree Party, which has been absent from votes to begin any graft investigation.

“The president has not been getting the support and cooperation he needs,” MDP spokeswoman Afshan Latheef said.

“It’s vital that the MDP gets a majority in parliament in order to fully investigate corruption and embezzlement, to seek justice for those disappeared and murdered and to fulfill the pledges of the government,” she added.

The Jumhooree leader, parliament speaker Gasim Ibrahim, could not immediately be reached for comment. In the past, he has said appointing commissions to conduct inquiries is unconstitutional.

'A secular Maldives'

The Jumhooree Party and Yameen’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) are both campaigning on a nationalist, religious platform.

Gasim has said an MDP majority would allow it to push for a secular Maldives and build churches and temples in the Muslim-majority country.

The MDP, which is competing against its current coalition partners in many constituencies, has fielded candidates for 85 seats in the 87-member parliament, while the Jumhooree Party has put up 51 candidates. PPM is contesting 50 seats.

There are no independent election opinion polls.

Last month, Yameen spent more than a month in police custody over a graft scandal aimed at syphoning money from the islands’ tourism board.

He was released on bail on March 28 in time for the last week of campaigning, and denies the charges.

- Reuters