Mauritian general election, 2014

Mauritian general election, 2014
Mauritius
10 December 2014 (2014-12-10)
All 70 seats in the National Assembly
35 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Sir Anerood Jugnauth Navin Ramgoolam
Party MSM Labour Party
Alliance Alliance Lepep PTR–MMM
Leader since 2014 1991
Leader's seat Piton/Rivière-du-Rempart Pamplemousses/Triolet
(lost seat)
Seats before 13 seats 31 seats
Seats won 47 13
Seat change Increase 34 Decrease 18
Prime Minister before election

Navin Ramgoolam
Labour Party

 Prime Minister-designate

Anerood Jugnauth
Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM)

Mauritius
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Mauritius
Constitution

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.

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).

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.

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.

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]

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]

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:

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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]

Party Votes % Seats
Elected Top-up Total
Alliance Lepep (MSM–PMSD–ML)[lower-alpha 1]1,016,55149.8347451
PTR/MMM[lower-alpha 2]785,64538.5113316
Mauritian Solidarity Front41,8152.05000
Rezistans ek Alternativ23,1171.13000
Rodrigues People's Organisation21,8741.07202
Mauritian Social Democratic Movement19,3380.95000
Lalit11,5500.57000
Rodrigues Movement11,1130.54000
Agreement for Parliamentary Democracy10,5480.52000
Les Verts Fraternels10,1910.50000
Independents26,5161.30000
Total2,039,97210062769
Source: Electoral Commission
  1. ↑ 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
  2. ↑ 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]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Mauritius opposition sweep to victory in parliamentary polls – Yahoo! News". http://news.yahoo.com/. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11. External link in |publisher= (help)
  2. ↑ "PTR-MMM: les détails de l'accord signé entre les deux leaders ". L'express. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
  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
  7. ↑ "Alliance Lepep: voici la liste des candidats alignés ". L'express. 2014-11-15. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
  8. ↑ "Best Losers : 51 députés pour l'alliance Lepep et 16 pour le PTr-MMM ". L'express. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
  9. 1 2 "Législatives : l'alliance Lepep l'emporte 47-13 ; Navin Ramgoolam battu au no 5 ". Defi Media. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
  10. ↑ "SAJ: "Le programme électoral mis en pratique dès aujourd'hui" ". L'express. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
  11. ↑ "Navin Ramgoolam : " J'accepte ce choix avec humilité " ". Defi Media. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
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