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.
Politics of Mauritius takes place in a framework of a parliamentary democracy. The separation of powers is among the three branches of the Government of Mauritius,namely the legislative,the executive and the Judiciary,is embedded in the Constitution of Mauritius. Being a Westminster system of government,Mauritius's unicameral house of parliament officially,the National Assembly,is supreme. It elects the President and the Prime Minister. While the President is voted by a single majority of votes in the house,the Prime Minister is the MP who supports a majority in the house. The President is the Head of State while the prime minister has full executive power and is the Head of Government who is assisted by a council of Ministers. Mauritius has a multi-party system. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Mauritius a "full democracy" in 2022.
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.
Paul Raymond Bérenger is a Mauritian politician who was Prime Minister of Mauritius from 2003 to 2005. He has been Leader of the Opposition on several occasions –from 1983 to 1987,1997 to 2000,2005 to 2006,2007 to 2013,October 2013 to 15 September 2014,and again from December 2014 to December 2016 when he was replaced by Xavier-Luc Duval. Following his party's defeat in the 2014 general elections,he became Leader of the Opposition for the sixth time,making him the longest ever to serve in this constitutional position. He was also deputy prime minister from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2003,and he was a cabinet minister in the government of Anerood Jugnauth in 1982 and 1991. Bérenger,a Christian of Franco-Mauritian descent,has been the only non-Hindu prime minister of Mauritius,or,more particularly,the only prime minister who has not belonged to the Jugnauth or Ramgoolam families.
Karl Auguste Offmann,GCSK was a Mauritian politician who briefly served as the president of Mauritius from 2002 to 2003.
The Mauritian Militant Movement is a left-wing socialist political party in Mauritius. The party was founded by a group of students in the late 1960s. The MMM advocates a fairer society,without discrimination on the basis of social class,race,community,caste,religion,gender or sexual orientation.
Since 1967,Mauritius has experienced 13 free and fair democratic general elections to choose a government.
Navinchandra Ramgoolam is a Mauritian politician and doctor serving as prime minister of Mauritius for the third time following the 2024 general election,after the landslide victory of his coalition Alliance du Changement. He is a prominent figure in the political history of Mauritius,having served multiple terms as the Prime Minister of the country. He is also the leader of the Labour Party.
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.
The Militant Socialist Movement is a centre-left political party in Mauritius. It was the single largest political party in the National Assembly of Mauritius,having won 42 of the 69 seats in the 2019 general elections;however,following the 2024 election,it only possesses one seat. It also holds the largest number of seats in all city/town councils through the country with 60 councillors out of 120. The party tends to be more popular amongst Indo-Mauritians.
Dev Virahsawmy was a Mauritian politician,playwright,poet and advocate of the Mauritian Creole language. Though he wrote easily in both French and English,Virahsawmy was most renowned for his efforts to popularise the use of Creole.
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 10 December 2014 and resulted in a landslide victory for the Alliance Lepep coalition,which secured 47 of the elected seats under the leadership of Sir Anerood Jugnauth. The Labour Party–Mauritian Militant Movement (PTR–MMM) alliance led by Navin Ramgoolam got 13 seats.
Sangeet Fowdar FCCA,MP is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and Mauritian politician,serving as a member of parliament for Grand Baie &Poudre d'Or,Mauritius. He is a member of the Public Accounts Committee and the parliamentary representative for Mauritius at the World Trade Organization. Fowdar previously served as the Ministry of Training,Skills,Development,Productivity and External Communications of Mauritius in the cabinet of Sir Anerood Jugnauth from 2000 to 2003 and Paul Berenger from 2003 to 2005. He was first elected as member of parliament for Flacq &Bon Accueil in 2000,the constituency of former Vice-Prime Minister Anil Bachoo,where he was a Cabinet Minister. Fowdar was educated at EW Fact in Holborn,London.
The Muvman Liberater is a left-wing political party in Mauritius that was founded in 2014 by Ivan Collendavelloo,a lawyer and career politician. It was created as a breakaway from the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) in protest against MMM leader Paul Berenger's alliance with Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam's Labour Party. It won seven seats in the 2014 General Election,with the elected MPs being Ivan Collendavelloo,Sangeet Fowdar,Anil Gayan,Ravi Rutna,Anwar Husnoo,Eddy Boissezon and Toolsyraj Benydin.
Shakeel Ahmed Yousuf Abdul Razack Mohamed is a Mauritian Barrister and politician.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 7 November 2019. The result was a victory for the Mauritian Alliance,a coalition of the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM),Muvman Liberater,Alan Ganoo Movement and Plateforme Militante,which won 42 of the 70 seats. Pravind Jugnauth of the MSM remained Prime Minister.
Harisun Boodhoo more commonly known as Harish Boodhoo,is a Mauritian political figure who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius from 11 June 1982 to 21 August 1983. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) in 1976,1982 and 1983 in Rivière des Anguilles and Souillac.
Paramhamsa Nababsing,more commonly known as Prem Nababsing,was a Mauritian politician and MMM minister.
The Best Loser System (BLS) refers to the method used in Mauritius since the 1950s to guarantee ethnic representation across the entire electorate in the National Assembly without organising the representation wholly by ethnicity.
