General elections were held for the first time in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

between 11 and 20 January 1886. They followed the introduction of a new constitution the previous year. The Democrats and Reformists (also known as the Oligarchs) each won five of the ten elected seats.HISTOIRE: Les premières élections générales opposent Oligarques et Démocrates
Le Mauricien, 26 December 2011

Electoral system

The new constitution provided for a 28-member

Council of Government The Council of Government of Monaco is the Prince's governing body. It consists of six members: Minister of State, who chairs the council, and the five members (four counsellors and one delegate); he also has voting rights, and has control of ...

, which consisted of the Governor, 12 officials, 5 appointed members and 10 elected members. The ten elected members were returned from nine constituencies formed from the nine

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

, which all districts returning one member except

Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ec ...

, which returned two.Constitutional Evolution of Mauritius from British rule to Independence
Government of Mauritius Voting took place in each constituency on a different day, starting in Port Louis on 11 January and ending in Grand Port on 20 January. The franchise for the elections was severely limited; the right to vote was restricted to male British subjects aged 21 and over and who possessed Rs300 of immovable property or movable property worth Rs3,000, a monthly salary of Rs50, those paying rent of Rs25 a month or paying a licence duty of at Rs200 a year. People married to eligible voters, or the oldest son of a qualifying widow were also entitled to vote. As a result, although the population of Mauritius was 359,688, only 4,061 people were eligible to vote, of which just 253 were Asian.

Campaign

A total of 25 candidates contested the elections; led by William Newton, the Reformists nominated ran candidates in all ten constituencies. The Democrats put forward nine, with their leader Onésipho Beaugeard running in two constituencies. The remaining six candidates were independents, one of whom (Arthur Pitot) also ran in two candidates. Despite the limited franchise, election notices were published in English, French, Hindustani (written in Arabic script),

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

.Kenneth Ballhatchet (1995) "The structure of British official attitudes: Colonial Mauritius 1883−1968" ''The Historical Journal'', Vol. 38 No. 4, pp989−1011

Results

By constituency

References

{{Mauritian elections

1886 Events January–March * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ''Strange ...

1886 in Mauritius January 1886 events