Mauritian general election, 2014

Mauritian general election, 2014
	← List of MPs elected in the Mauritian general election, 2010
All 70 seats in the National Assembly ; 35 seats needed for a majority
Prime Minister before election; Navin Ramgoolam ; Labour Party	Prime Minister-designate; Anerood Jugnauth ; Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM) Contents Background ; Electoral system ; Campaign ; PTR-MMM coalition ; Alliance Lepep ; Results ; Aftermath ; References ;

Last updated April 23, 2019

General elections were held in Mauritius on 10 December 2014 and resulted in a victory for the Alliance Lepep coalition,^[1] which secured 47 of the elected seats under the leadership of Sir Anerood Jugnauth, while the PTR–MMM alliance under Navin Ramgoolam only got 13 seats.

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean. The main Island of Mauritius is located about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) off the southeast coast of the African continent. The Republic of Mauritius also includes the islands of Rodrigues, Agalega and St. Brandon. The capital and largest city Port Louis is located on the main island of Mauritius.

The Labour Party is a centre-left social-democratic political party in Mauritius, and one of the four main Mauritian political parties along with the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM), the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD). As a member of the Labour Party-MMM alliance, it had four Members of Parliament directly elected in the general election of 2014. The party is led by Navin Ramgoolam.

Navinchandra Ramgoolam, GCSK, FRCP is a Mauritian politician who was Prime Minister of Mauritius from 2005 to 2014 and leader of the Labour Party. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1991 to 1995. He served as Prime Minister for the first time from December 1995 until September 2000, and became Leader of the Opposition again from October 2000 to 4 July 2005. On 5 July 2005, he became prime minister for a second term after his Alliance Sociale won the general elections. He served again as Prime Minister from 2005 to 2014, when he was defeated afterwards.

Prime Minister Navin Rangoolam lost his own seat and accepted defeat after voters rejected his proposals to boost presidential powers. Former president and Alliance Lepep leader, 84-year-old Anerood Jugnauth became prime minister in the Indian Ocean island nation.^[1] Alliance Lepep is a coalition led by the Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM) with other parties including the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD) and the Muvman Liberater (ML).

The Prime Minister of Mauritius is the head of government of Mauritius. He presides over the Cabinet of Ministers which advises the President of the Country and is collectively responsible to the National Assembly for any advice given and for all action done by or under the authority of any Minister in the execution of his office.

The Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD) is a right-wing political party in Mauritius. It is conservative and francophilic. It is the second biggest political party in the National Assembly and constitutes of the formal opposition, since it left government in 2016 with leader Xavier-Luc Duval serving as the Leader of the opposition.

Muvman Liberater is a left-wing political party in Mauritius founded in 2014 by Ivan Collendavelloo, a lawyer, 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.

Background

Following the victory of the Alliance de L'Avenir in the 2010 elections, Navin Ramgoolam continued to govern as prime minister. However, during the period 2010-2014, the Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM) and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD) left the coalition and the Labour Party continued to govern alone with a thin majority.

The L'Alliance de L'avenir was a political alliance in Mauritius which was formed in 2010 in respect for the next parliamentary elections which were held on 5 May 2010. It is an alliance of the Labour Party, Mouvement Socialiste Militant and Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate. It was formed by the prime minister Dr. Navin Ramgoolam and is led by three other people, namely Rashid Beebeejaun, Xavier-Luc Duval and Pravind Jugnauth.

In September 2014, the leaders of the Labour Party and the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), Navin Ramgoolam and Paul Berenger, signed an agreement to enter into an electoral alliance for the next general election.^[2] The plan of this agreement vowed to push through constitutional changes giving greater power to the now-ceremonial role of president.

A general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.

Soon after, the MSM, the PMSD and the Muvman Liberater (a new party formed from a break-up with the MMM due to their coalition with the PTR) formed a coalition to face the PTR-MMM Alliance in the next general election.^[3]

Prime Minister Ramgoolam advised the President Kailash Purryag to dissolve the National Assembly on 6 October 2014. The President announced that the elections would be held on 10 December.^[4]

The President of Mauritius is the Head of State of the Republic of Mauritius. Mauritius is a parliamentary republic, and the President functions as a ceremonial figurehead, elected by the National Assembly as set out by the Constitution of Mauritius. The current office-holder is Barlen Vyapoory who is serving on an acting capacity following Ameenah Gurib-Fakim's resignation. The President's official residence is the State House.

Rajkeswur Purryag, GCSK GCSK, GOSK is a Mauritian politician who served as President of Mauritius from 2012 to May 2015. He was elected as the fifth President of Mauritius by the National Assembly and took office on 21 July 2012. He succeeded Sir Anerood Jugnauth, who spent nine years as President from 2003 until resigning in March 2012. Kailash Purryag previously served as Member of Parliament, Minister and Speaker of the National Assembly; he made his debut in the political arena at an early age in 1976.

The National Assembly is Mauritius's unicameral legislature, which was called the Legislative Assembly until 1992, when the country became a republic. The Constitution of Mauritius provides for the parliament of Mauritius to consist of the President and the National Assembly. The parliament of Mauritius is modelled after the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, where members of parliament are voted in at regular general elections, on the basis of a first past the post system.

Electoral system

The National Assembly has 62 elected members elected in 20 three-seat constituencies and one two-seat constituency (the island of Rodrigues). The elections are held using the block vote system, whereby voters have as many votes as there are seats available.^[5]

In addition to the elected members, the Electoral Supervisory Commission has the power to appoint a further eight members. The additional members are chosen from amongst the unsuccessful candidates who received the highest number of votes, and are appointed with the aim of balancing the parliamentary representation of different ethnic groups.^[6]

Campaign

The contest was mostly between the PTR–MMM alliance led by Navin Ramgoolam and the Alliance Lepep led by Anerood Jugnauth.

PTR-MMM coalition

The Labour Party (PTR) and Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) alliance is led by Navin Ramgoolam and is based on an agreement of power sharing and the implementation of a Second Republic with a more presidential system.

The current system is purely based on the Westminster style of government where the head of state (being the President) is a ceremonial figurehead with very few executive powers. Under the PTR-MMM agreement, the new President would be elected through a single-round election across the country. Additional powers would include the prerogative to preside over the cabinet of ministers (currently led by the Prime Minister), dissolve the National Assembly, recommendations in various institutions including the appointment of ministers. The President would also be able to address the National Assembly as and when required, and would be elected for a 7-year term, as opposed to the five-year term served by the National Assembly.

While some political observers define this agreement as innovative (re-balancing the powers which are concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister) and a unification of the population through votes (as both parties have similar electorates in numbers), other people mention that Ramgoolam had always favored a presidential system of government while Berenger had argued for a Second Republic since 1987.

The agreement concluded that if the coalition wins a three-quarters majority in parliament, a bill would be passed to implement the new republic, with Navin Ramgoolam resigning to present himself as a presidential candidate while Paul Berenger would replace him as Prime Minister.

The Labour Party and the MMM each proposed 30 candidates, with each party having either one or two candidates in every mainland constituency. Like other mainland parties, however, they did not contest the two seats allocated to the island of Rodrigues.

Alliance Lepep

The Alliance Lepep (Alliance of the People) is composed of three parties and is led by Anerood Jugnauth. It was formed as a response to the formation of the PTR-MMM alliance. The parties included in the alliance are as follows:^[7]

Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM) - 40 candidates - led by Pravind Jugnauth
Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD) - 13 candidates - led by Xavier Luc Duval
Muvman Liberater (ML) - 7 candidates - led by Ivan Collendavelloo

Program

The program of the Alliance has mainly been on the following measures that they will be taking as soon as they are elected to form the next government. They are as follows:

Review the Driver’s license penalty points system:

The alliance maintained that the point system is inappropriate and that it misapplied and penalizes professional drivers. However, it does not say whether the system will be fully or partially abolished or new criteria will apply.

Identity card "Data Bank" to be destroyed:

As a citizen, Pravind Jugnauth initiated a case concerning the new identity card in the Supreme Court. He believes that giving and storing personal information including fingerprints and 3G scanned passport photos is an invasion of privacy. He promised that the “Data Bank” storing the data would be destroyed.

Implement a decrease in prices of Gasoline and diesel.
Introduce private TV:

The MSM-PMSD-ML alliance promised to introduce private television.

Arrange MBC:

The MBC Act will be reviewed to increase more impartiality in political and national coverage in a view to protect free and fair election campaigns.

Old age pension scheme at Rs 5000/month:

The old age pension which is currently at Rs 3623 (US$115) per month will be increased to Rs 5000 (US$157) per month.

Syndicate police
Minimum Wage:

Introduction of a minimum national wage rate.

Results

Results for the election were declared the day after the election. The Alliance Lepep secured 47 out of the 62 elected seats in the National Assembly, while the Alliance Ptr-MMM got 13, and the remaining two elected seats went to the Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais (OPR), according to official results.^[1] As per the system referred to as the 'Best Loser system', the Electoral Commissioner's Office designated 7 additional seats from the non-elected candidates to occupy the National Assembly based on the religious and ethnic declarations of the candidates not elected. The Alliance Lepep coalition obtained an additional 4 seats whilst the Alliance Ptr-MMM obtained an additional 3 seats.^[8]

936,975 individuals were registered to vote, and the participation rate was 74.11%.^[9]

e • d Party	Votes	%	Seats
e • d Party	Votes	%	Elected	Top-up	Total
Alliance Lepep (MSM–PMSD–ML)^{[lower-alpha 1]}	1,016,551	49.83	47	4	51
PTR/MMM ^{[lower-alpha 2]}	785,645	38.51	13	3	16
Mauritian Solidarity Front	41,815	2.05	0	0	0
Rezistans ek Alternativ	23,117	1.13	0	0	0
Rodrigues People's Organisation	21,874	1.07	2	0	2
Mauritian Social Democratic Movement	19,338	0.95	0	0	0
Lalit	11,550	0.57	0	0	0
Rodrigues Movement	11,113	0.54	0	0	0
Agreement for Parliamentary Democracy	10,548	0.52	0	0	0
Les Verts Fraternels	10,191	0.50	0	0	0

Parties with less than 0.5% of the vote	61,714	3.03
Réveille des Jeunes	9,775	0.48
Social Justice Party	8,395	0.41
Free Citizens' Forum	8,210	0.40
Rodrigues Militant Movement–Rodrigues Patriotic Front	5,787	0.28
Malin Party	5,071	0.25
Authentic Mauritian Movement	4,071	0.20
The Liberals	3,256	0.16
Ensam	2,363	0.12
Muvman Travayis Militant	2,216	0.11
Movement Enn Sel Direction	1,853	0.09
Liberal Action Party	1,570	0.08
Union Patriots Ilois Mauriciens	1,293	0.06
Mauritian Workers' Movement	1,027	0.05
Socialist Front	1,005	0.05
Mauritian People's Party	585	0.03
Militant Lepep Movement	563	0.03
Parti Tireurs de Sable	542	0.03
Link to Build	448	0.02
Independent Forward Bloc	423	0.02
Ti Zwazo	398	0.02
Rodrigues Independence Movement	388	0.02
Mauritian Socialist Rally	351	0.02
Poor People Party	349	0.02
Mauritian Democratic Party	320	0.02
Mauritian Patriotic Front	314	0.02
National Liberation Front	271	0.01
Movement for People's Liberation	171	0.01
Regional Assembly Man-Animal-Nature	156	0.01
Mauritius New Generation Forces	145	0.01
National Socialist Movement	121	0.01
Mauritian National Congress	115	0.01
Four Cats Political Party	66	0.00
Mauritian Action Committee	63	0.00
Mauritius Party Rights	33	0.00

Independents	26,516	1.30	0	0	0
Total	2,039,972	100	62	7	69
Source: Electoral Commission

↑ Of the 47 elected Lepep seats, 33 were won by the MSM, 7 by the PMSD and 7 by the ML. All four top-up seats were taken by the PMSD
↑ Of the 13 elected PTR/MMM seats, 9 were won b the MMM and four by the PTR. All three top-up seats were taken by the MMM.

Aftermath

Soon after the result was declared, the Alliance Lepep leader, Anerood Jugnauth, said in a press conference that they will put the country back on track for another economic miracle and that they will start working on the program on which they have been elected.^[10] At 84 years of age, he will become prime minister for the third time in the history of Mauritius with six mandates (1982, 1983, 1987, 1991, 2000 and 2014), after having served from 1982 to 1995 and 2000 to 2003.^[9] He was also President of Mauritius from 2003 to 2012.

In a broadcast on the state-owned television station, Navin Ramgoolam conceded his loss and wished the winning team good luck.^[11]

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References

1 2 3 "Mauritius opposition sweep to victory in parliamentary polls – Yahoo! News". https://news.yahoo.com/. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11. External link in |publisher= (help)
↑ "PTR-MMM: les détails de l'accord signé entre les deux leaders ". L'express. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
↑ "Alliance Lepep: la liste des candidats probables ". L'express. 2014-09-26. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
↑ Mauritius sets Dec. 10 date for parliamentary election Reuters, 7 November 2014
↑ Electoral system IPU
↑ General information IPU
↑ "Alliance Lepep: voici la liste des candidats alignés ". L'express. 2014-11-15. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
↑ "Best Losers : 51 députés pour l'alliance Lepep et 16 pour le PTr-MMM ". L'express. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
1 2 "Législatives : l'alliance Lepep l'emporte 47-13 ; Navin Ramgoolam battu au no 5 ". Defi Media. 2014-12-11. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
↑ "SAJ: "Le programme électoral mis en pratique dès aujourd'hui" ". L'express. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
↑ "Navin Ramgoolam : " J'accepte ce choix avec humilité " ". Defi Media. 2014-12-11. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-11.

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[10] Of the 47 elected Lepep seats, 33 were won by the MSM, 7 by the PMSD and 7 by the ML. All four top-up seats were taken by the PMSD

[11] Of the 13 elected PTR/MMM seats, 9 were won b the MMM and four by the PTR. All three top-up seats were taken by the MMM.

[Yahoo-1] 1 2 3 "Mauritius opposition sweep to victory in parliamentary polls – Yahoo! News". https://news.yahoo.com/. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11. External link in |publisher= (help)

[L'express-2] "PTR-MMM: les détails de l'accord signé entre les deux leaders ". L'express. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2014-12-11.

[L'express_2-3] "Alliance Lepep: la liste des candidats probables ". L'express. 2014-09-26. Retrieved 2014-12-11.

[4] Mauritius sets Dec. 10 date for parliamentary election Reuters, 7 November 2014

[5] Electoral system IPU

[6] General information IPU

[L'express_3-7] "Alliance Lepep: voici la liste des candidats alignés ". L'express. 2014-11-15. Retrieved 2014-12-11.

[L'express_5-8] "Best Losers : 51 députés pour l'alliance Lepep et 16 pour le PTr-MMM ". L'express. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-13.

[defimedia1-9] 1 2 "Législatives : l'alliance Lepep l'emporte 47-13 ; Navin Ramgoolam battu au no 5 ". Defi Media. 2014-12-11. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-11.

[L'express_4-12] "SAJ: "Le programme électoral mis en pratique dès aujourd'hui" ". L'express. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11.

[defimedia2-13] "Navin Ramgoolam : " J'accepte ce choix avec humilité " ". Defi Media. 2014-12-11. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-11.