Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island, as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga, and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion, are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) and has an exclusive economic zone covering 2,300,000 square kilometres.
The known and sometimes formally documented history of Mauritius begins with its possible discovery by Austronesians under the Austronesian expansion from pre-Han Taiwan, circa 1500 to 1000 BC, and then by Arabs,, followed by Portuguese and its appearance on European maps in the early 16th century. Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain, and became independent on 12 March 1968.
Sir Anerood Jugnauth, GCSK, PV, was a Mauritian statesman, politician and barrister who served both as President and Prime Minister of Mauritius. He was Member of Parliament for Piton & Riviere Du Rempart. A central figure of Mauritian politics in the 1980s and 1990s, he was Leader of the Opposition from 1976 to 1982. He served four consecutive terms as prime minister from 1982 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2003. He was then elected as President from 2003 to 2012. Following his party's victory in the 2014 general elections, he served his sixth and final term as prime minister, becoming the nation's longest serving prime minister with more than 18 years of tenure, overtaking Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who held the office for 14 years.
Since 1967, Mauritius has experienced 13 free and fair democratic general elections to choose a government.
The Mauritian Social Democratic Party, also known as the Mauritian Conservative Party, is a political party in Mauritius. Conservative and Francophilic, the PMSD is the fourth biggest political party in the National Assembly and currently forms part of the opposition.
Sir Abdool Razack Mohamed was an Indian-born former senior minister in the pre and post-independence cabinet of Mauritius.
Sookdeo Bissoondoyal was a Mauritian politician and one of the leading figures in the nation's independence movement.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 20 December 1995. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party-Mauritian Militant Movement alliance led by Navin Ramgoolam, which won all 60 constituency seats on Mauritius. Along with 1982, it was one of three elections in which a party won every seat. The Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) led by Anerood Jugnauth lost power after 13 years, with Jugnauth resigning two days after the results were announced. Navin Ramgoolam became Prime Minister and appointed Paul Berenger as Deputy Prime Minister.
Constituencies of Mauritius are the electoral boundaries within the Republic of Mauritius. They are also commonly referred to as Circonscriptions amongst the locals. The country follows the Westminster system and elects 60 members of parliament for a term of 5 years. There are in all 21 Constituencies in the republic, each of them returning 3 members with the exception of Constituency n°21, which returns only 2 members. The Constitution stipulates that there shall be 20 constituencies and one created specially for the Rodrigues island.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 20 December 1976. They were the first general elections to be held since independence on 12 March 1968 and came nine years after the previous elections in 1967. Although elections had been scheduled for 1972, they were cancelled by the Labour Party–Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate–Muslim Committee of Action coalition government due to political unrest. The year prior to these elections was marked by the May 1975 Students protest riots.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 11 June 1982. 360 candidates representing 22 parties contested the election, the result of which was a landslide victory for the Mauritian Militant Movement–Mauritian Socialist Party alliance, which won all 60 of the directly elected mainland seats.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 21 August 1983. The result was a victory for an alliance of the Militant Socialist Movement, the Labour Party and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate, which between them won 46 seats. The Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) won 32 seats, whilst the Labour Party secured nine seats and PMSD five. This alliance allowed Jugnauth to continue as Prime Minister while bringing Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and Gaetan Duval back into the government after their severe defeat in the 1982 elections. Shortly after, Ramgoolam was appointed as Governor General, Duval became Deputy Prime Minister and Satcam Boolell became Minister of Foreign Affairs. Voter turnout was 85%.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 30 August 1987. The result was a victory for the Alliance, composed of the Labour Party, the Mauritian Socialist Movement and the Mauritian Social Democrat Party, which won 44 of the 70 seats, despite receiving a lower percentage of the vote than the MMM-led alliance.
The Muslim Committee of Action, also known as the Comité d'Action Musulman or Comité d'Action Mauricien (CAM) was a political party in Mauritius.
The 1968 Mauritian riots or Bagarre raciale Plaine Verte refers to a number of violent clashes that occurred in the Port Louis neighbourhoods of Cité Martial, Bell Village, Roche Bois, St. Croix, Cité Martial and Plaine Verte as well as in the village of Madame Azor near Goodlands in Mauritius over a period of ten days, six weeks before the country's declaration of independence on 12 March 1968.
The Independence Party was the name of a coalition of 3 major political parties on the island of Mauritius in the 1960s and 1970s. It was also commonly known as Parti de L'indépendance.
The Independent Forward Bloc (IFB) was a political party in Mauritius.
The 1967 Port Louis riots refer to a series of violent clashes and looting in the city of Port Louis, Mauritius.
Jean Alex Rima, more commonly known as Alex Rima is a Mauritian politician.
Abdool Wahab Foondun was a Mauritian politician who was active both before and after the Independence of Mauritius.
