Politics of Mauritius - Communal Voting

Communal Voting

Voting is very often carried out with communal tendencies. After independence, almost all the prime ministers elected by the population have been Hindus. Before independence, most Hindus did not have the right to cast votes and were not eligible to contest elections although were the majority ethnic group of the population. The only non-Hindu PM was Paul Raymond Bérenger who spent 22 months in office from 2003 to 2005 thanks to an understanding between his party, the MMM, and Sir Aneerood Jugnauth's party, the MSM, prior to the 2000 elections. Sir Aneerood Jugnauth thus assumed the office of PM for the first 3 years and, in 2003, Bérenger became PM while Jugnauth became President, a post usually reserved for a member of a minority ethnic group. Currently, Monique Ohsan Bellepeau, a Christian is the acting President, she took over from Sir Anerood Jugnauth a Hindu, while Prime Minister Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam is a Hindu.

More than 45 out of 70 members of Parliament are Hindus. The Ministries are also allocated in such a way as to maintain communal balance. Hindus hold 16 ministries out of 22; 3 ministries are allocated to Muslims and 3 ministries are allocated to Christians. The current electoral system based on the Westminster system, was devised by the British and incorporates what is commonly known as "Best losers", which maintains ethnic representation of MPs in the legislative assembly. Indeed, when the results of the elections do not represent the ethnic proportions of the population, the Best Loser System provides for additional members to be nominated by the Electoral Commission in order to ensure that the Assembly reflects the ethnic proportions of the Mauritian population.