Mauritius: Electoral Preparations: Electoral Administration

Updated 2000

One of the strengths of the Electoral Commissioner's office lies in its organisational and logistical efficiency in all aspects of electoral administration. The management of operations, such as the printing of ballot papers, their delivery to the Electoral Commissioner's official for the verification of serial numbers on the ballot paper against the one on the counterfoils and the dispatch of the ballot papers, ballot boxes and voting materials and equipments to the to the nearest police stations before their distribution to the polling centres, were all well organised and done professionally and efficiently.

There were 1 893 voting rooms for 779 431 registered voters (See table 3), an average of around 400 voters per voting room. There was also an excellent allocation of voters to polling station. All of this contributed to a smooth voting process.

Table 3: Number of Polling Stations per Constituency[1]

No	Constituency	No polling stations[2]	No voting rooms[3]
1	Grand River West & P. Louis West	12	88
2	Port Louis South & Port Louis Central	8	58
3	Port Louis Maritime & Port Louis East	11	59
4	Port Louis North & Montagne Longue	10	96
5	Pamplemousses & Triolet	15	114
6	Grand Baie & Poudre d'Or	14	108
7	Piton & Rivière du Rempart	16	85
8	Quartier Militaire & Moka	20	88
9	Flacq & Bon Accueil	19	108
10	Montagne Blanche & G. River South East	16	101
11	Vieux Grand Port & Rose Belle	20	84
12	Mahebourg & Plaine Magnien	13	79
13	Rivière des Anguilles & Soiullac	14	76
14	Savanne & Black River	21	121
15	La Caverne & Phoenix	14	115
16	Vacoas & Floreal	11	91
17	Curepipe & Midlands	11	98
18	Belle Rose & Quatre Bornes	10	97
19	Stanley & Rose Hill	9	81
20	Beau Bassin & Petite Rivière	11	94
21	Rodrigues	8	52
	TOTAL	283	1,893

Table 3: Notes

[1] Source: Electoral Commission 2000.
[2] Polling station: in many SADC countries it is known as polling or voting centre. It is comprised of many voting rooms.
[3] A voting room is the unit where the casting of the vote takes place.

The electoral role of civil society

Mauritian civil society organisations have a limited role in the electoral process. Dahoo (2000) admits that the Electoral Commission does not normally hold meetings with organs of civil society, but if any such meetings are solicited, they are welcome and would be informal.

Elections in Mauritius take place regularly (ie National Assembly, Municipal Council or Village Council or by-elections) to the extent that the electorate is familiar with the procedures. The Electoral Commissioner's office keeps the electorate informed of the administrative arrangements through the Government Gazette, local newspapers, radio, TV and colourful posters. Political parties also play a crucial role in this regard.

Nonetheless, it was striking to observe that civil society groups were mute about important matters, such as the current discussions on electoral reform to make representation fairer. For example, there is little evidence that civil society organisations have taken the opportunity to propose reforms which would improve the representation of Mauritian women in Parliament. Indeed, in Mauritius, women are very much under-represented in Parliament and government.

Reference

DAHOO, M 2000 "Mauritius Electoral Profile", EISA.