Titans of politics go head to head

Campaigning ended yesterday at 6pm, but before the deadline, cavalcades of pick-up trucks and motorbikes used the remaining hours to whiz around the congested concrete capital, garlanded in party colours and blaring out Hindi music for their candidate of choice.

Rallies over the past month have become progressively more heated, as the two titans of Maldivian politics, the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), go head to head, each vying to win a majority in an election that will determine the legislative landscape of the next five years.

The outcome will create the country’s first democratically-elected and proportionally representative parliament, responsible for plugging the numerous gaps in the country’s legislation, and serving as a check and balance on the government.