Mauritian general election, 2010
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General elections were held in Mauritius on 5 May 2010. The coalition comprising
Mauritius Labour Party The Labour Party (french: Parti Travailliste, PTr) is a centre-left social-democratic political party in Mauritius. It is one of four main Mauritian political parties along, with the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM), the Militant Socialist Mov ...
under Navin Ramgoolam, 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 ...
under
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 ...
and the
Mauritian Social Democrat Party Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably I ...
under
Xavier Luc Duval Charles Gaëtan Xavier Luc Duval (born 28 January 1958) is a Mauritian politician who is the present Leader of the Opposition and was also Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius in the cabinet of Sir Anerood Jugnauth from December 2014 to December ...
, won a majority with 41 seats in the parliament. 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, ...
-led coalition under Paul Berenger finished second with 18 seats. The Mauritian Solidarity Front won one seat and the
Rodrigues Movement The Rodrigues Movement () is a political party in Rodrigues island, Mauritius. At the legislative elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to h ...
won the two remaining seats. The elections were the ninth to be held since independence from the United Kingdom in 1968. The Mauritius Labour Party, the Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD) and the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) formed an electoral coalition called
Alliance de L'Avenir The L'Alliance de L'avenir ( French: ''Alliance of Future'') was a political alliance in Mauritius which was formed in 2010 for the next parliamentary elections which were held on 5 May 2010. It is an alliance of the Labour Party, Mouvement So ...
( en, Alliance of the Future) for this election. Ramgoolam, the alliance leader, allotted 35 seats to his own party to compete for the 60 seats on the island, whereas the MSM was given 18 and the PMSD 7. Before the election, it appeared that Berenger might gain back the PM's post that he held from 2003 to 2005; he was the first prime minister since independence that was not of South Asian origin. Berenger led his own alliance of parties, known as the Alliance du Coeur ( en, Alliance of the Heart), a reference to the official logo of the Mauritian Militant Movement, by far the biggest party in that alliance. Parties based in
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 ...
compete for the two remaining seats, with 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 ...
and the
Rodrigues Movement The Rodrigues Movement () is a political party in Rodrigues island, Mauritius. At the legislative elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to h ...
being the main parties there. During the election, 62 seats in the National Assembly of Mauritius were contested with a further 8 seats to be designated by the electoral commission under a complex formula designed to keep a balance of ethnic groups in the parliament. The candidates must declare which ethnic group (Hindu, Muslim, Chinese or "general population") they belong to in order to run for a seat. In 2010, 104 of the candidates refused to do so, resulting in them being disqualified, leaving 529 candidates for the seats. Around 130 foreign observers, including some from the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
and the Southern African Development Community, were present to monitor the voting process. Around 900,000 people were eligible to vote in the election. The main issues debated were economic and constitutional reform, fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and ethnicity. Paul Berenger accused the incumbent government of abusing the state-owned television station, the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, to influence voters. He also accused his political opponents of using
communalism Communalism may refer to: * Communalism (Bookchin), a theory of government in which autonomous communities form confederations * , a historical method that follows the development of communities * Communalism (South Asia), violence across ethnic ...
and of negatively drawing attention to his minority
Franco-Mauritian Franco-Mauritians are an ethnic group from Mauritius who trace their ethnic ancestry to France and ethnic French people. Franco-Mauritians make up approximately 2% of the country's population. Origins The first French settlers arrived in Maurit ...
ancestry to swing voters against him. The Alliance de l'Avenir obtained 49.31% of the total votes and 41 seats whereas the Alliance du Coeur seized 42.36% of votes and 18 seats. The remaining parties and independent candidates obtained 8.14% of the votes. From the 62 seats, only ten women were elected. After the Alliance de L'Avenir was declared winner of the poll, its leader, Navin Ramgoolam, mentioned that he would govern in the interest of every Mauritian so that no one would be left behind. He added that the priorities of his government were the improvement of road infrastructures, the security of the people, education, health and youth development. Paul Berenger, who conceded defeat after the election, said that members of his party would continue their fight for a better Mauritius. He claimed that this election had not been free and fair, attributing the defeat of his alliance to numerous factors including biased coverage of the election by the state-owned television station, more financial resources by his political opponents, communalism and the electoral system. However, he would be prepared to work with the government for electoral reform, especially because his alliance had obtained only 18 of the 62 seats despite seizing 43% of popular votes. On May 7, 2010, the Electoral Supervisory Commission made their decision on the non-elected candidates to occupy the 8 additional seats in the National Assembly based on the religious and ethnic declarations of the candidates not elected, a system referred to as the 'Best Loser system'. Exceptionally, instead of 8, only 7 candidates were designated. Per the normal procedure, 4 best loser seats are allotted to candidates not elected but having obtained the highest percentage of votes as a member of a political party. However, they had to be of an appropriate religion or ethnic to maintain a balance in the parliament. 4 other seats are to be allotted so as not to change the result of the election. The Alliance de L'Avenir was allotted 4 additional seats whereas the Alliance du Coeur obtained 2 additional seats. Whereas the Electoral Supervisory Commission had no problem in attributing one seat to one candidate of the Rodrigues People's Organisation, they had difficulty in choosing a candidate for the 8th seat, which normally has to be a
Sino-Mauritian Mauritians of Chinese origin, also known as Sino-Mauritians or Chinese Mauritians, are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to China. Migration history Chinese migration from Sumatra to Mauritius Like members of other communities on th ...
of one of the two other successful parties in this election. But given neither the Mauritian Solidarity Front nor the Rodrigues Movement had candidates of this community during this election, no candidate was named for the 8th additional seat. Observers from the African Union for this election declared that the Best Loser system is problematic for the national unity of the country though it can reinforce social cohesion. They also considered the 2010 Mauritian general elections to have been 'free and transparent'.


Results


References

{{Mauritian elections Elections in Mauritius 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 ( ...