Elections in the Maldives late last month took an unexpected turn. Incumbent president Abdulla Yameen, who was widely expected to be returned to power, was unseated by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the avuncular consensus candidate backed by the country's major opposition parties.

After assuming power in 2013, following a coup against the country's first democratically elected leader the year before, Mr Yameen had spent his six-year presidency largely dismantling democracy at home while embracing China abroad.