Mauritius: General election of September 2000

Extracted from: "Mauritius" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 173-174.

A total of 779 431 voters registered for the 2000 National Assembly election (an increase of 8.98% compared to 1995 when 715 179 persons registered as voters).

There were 535 candidates contesting for the National Assembly seats. Twenty-one political parties and alliances filled a total of 354 candidates and 181 people stood as independent candidates. This time the election campaign was dominated by two alliances: the ruling PTr/PMXD and the MSM/MMM.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and Gaëtan Duval led the PTr/PMXD coalition. The outgoing prime minister, Dr Navin Ramgoolam of the Labour party (PTr), led a coalition with Xavier-Luc Duval, the leader of the Parti Mauricien Xavier Duval (PMXD). Duval was Minister of Finance in the previous government alliance formed in mid-1999.

The other alliance was formed (for the fourth time) between Sir Anerood Jugnauth (MSM) and Paul Bérenger (MMM). The MSM sought to appeal to the Hindu community while the MMM tried to base its membership from across the spectrum in Mauritius.

On 15 August 2000, the leaders of these two parties as well several other leaders from much smaller parties signed what they termed a 'historical electoral accord'. The most outstanding aspect of this accord was the proposed sharing of the prime ministerial post between MSM leader Sir Anerood Jugnauth and MMM leader Paul Bérenger. Under this arrangement, Jugnauth would hold the post of prime minister for the first three years and Bérenger for the remaining two years. After surrendering the premiership to Bérenger, Jugnauthwould be called to assume the function of President of the Republic after reforms to strengthen of the presidency, which was largely a symbolic post.

The MSM/MMM alliance argued that this reform was necessary because the prime minister held too much power in Mauritius, including the right to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections. They charged that this system created the opportunity for abuse. They illustrated this by recalling that Dr Ramgoolam dissolved parliament on 10 August 2000, issued the writs of election on the same day, fixed the nomination day for 26 August 2000 and the poll day for 11 September 2000, leaving the opposition only 32 days to organise.

However, Ramgoolam is not the only prime minister to have taken advantage of the system. As noted above (see General election of December 1995), when prime minister Jugnauth dissolved parliament in November 1995, the opposition had only 34 days between the dissolution of parliament and polling day to organise.

The accord also provided for a reform of the electoral system to replace the 'best losers system' gradually by proportional representation, and to end the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation's (MBC) monopoly over the electronic media.

In addition to sharing the post of prime minister, what made the MSM/MMM electoral accord exceptional was the fact that it would allow, for the first time in the history of the island, a non-Hindu Mauritian to become the Prime Minister.

The elections took place on 11 September 2000 with a total of 80.87% of registered voters casting their ballots. The MSM/MMM alliance won a resounding victory with 54 of the directly elected seats.

The 70 seats in the National Assembly were distributed as follows:

  • Alliance MSM/MMM: 58 (54 directly elected and 4 'best losers')
  • Alliance PTr/PMXD: 8 (6 directly elected and 2 'best losers')
  • Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais: 2 (2 directly elected and 0 'best losers')
  • Mouvement Rodriguais: 2 (0 directly elected and 2 'best losers')

Once more, the block vote system distorted the results by giving disproportional representation to the winner. The PTr/PMXD won approximately 30% of the total votes cast in the main island but obtained only 10% of the seats.

In addition, only four women have been elected out of 62 directly elected representative (all were on the MSM/MMM ticket).

A 25-member cabinet was appointed with Sir Anerood Jugnauth as prime minister and Mr Paul Bérenger as deputy prime minister and minister of fmance.