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 The Militant Socialist Movement (french: Mouvement Socialiste Militant; abbreviated MSM) is a centre-left political party in Mauritius. It is the largest single political party in the National Assembly of Mauritius, winning 42 of the 69 seats in ...

(MSM),

Muvman Liberater The Muvman Liberater is a Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in Mauritius founded in 2014 by Ivan Collendavelloo, a lawyer and career-politician, as a breakaway from the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) in protest against MMM leader ...

, Alan Ganoo Movement and Plateforme Militante), which won 42 of the 70 seats.

Pravind Jugnauth Pravind Kumar Jugnauth (born 25 December 1961) is a Mauritian politician serving as the prime minister of Mauritius since January 2017. Jugnauth has been the leader of the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) party since April 2003. He has held a n ...

of the MSM remained Prime Minister.

Electoral system

The National Assembly has 62 elected members elected in 20 three-seat constituencies and one two-seat

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

(the island of

Rodrigues Rodrigues (french: Île Rodrigues, link=yes ; Creole: ) is a autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, which include Mauritius and Réunion. Rodr ...

). The elections are held using the block vote system, whereby voters have as many votes as there are seats available. 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.

Results

The ruling

(MSM) won over half of the seats in Parliament, meaning incumbent Prime Minister

, who took over from his father Anerood Jugnauth in 2017, will serve a full five-year term as Prime Minister. Of the 62 directly-elected seats, the MSM won 38, the Labour Party won 14, the

Mauritian Militant Movement The Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) ( en, Mauritian Militant Movement) is a left-wing socialist political party in Mauritius. The party was formed by a group of students in the late 1960s. The MMM advocates what it sees as a "fairer" society, ...

(MMM) won 8, and the

Rodrigues People's Organisation The Rodrigues People's Organisation (OPR) (french: Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais) is a political party based in the Island of Rodrigues, Mauritius. At the legislative elections of 11 September 2000, the party won 2 out of 70 seats (both the ...

(OPR) won 2 seats from the island of Rodrigues.

Aftermath

Following the announcement of the results and the formation of a new government, several legal petitions were lodged in Supreme Court challenging the validity of the results, claiming electoral irregularities, a lack of transparency, undue influence by political activists and allegations of fraud and electoral bribery. The presence of independent monitors was claimed to have been ineffective. The government was also criticised for its intensive use of state media. Murdered activist Kistnen was rumoured to be about to disclose details of how 1,200 Bangladeshi nationals had been taken to vote multiple times in different constituencies and that the MNMM had exceeded spending limits. However, according to international observers from the SADC and from the French diplomacy, the election was free and fair.

References

{{Mauritian elections Mauritius

General election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

Elections in Mauritius November 2019 events in Africa