Mauritius: Ballot papers and electoral materials

Extracted from: Rouikaya Kasenally 2009 "Chapter 8: Mauritius" IN Denis Kadima and Susan Booysen (eds) Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa 1989-2009: 20 Years of Multiparty Democracy, EISA, Johannesburg, 292-293.

Ballot papers are the most crucial and sensitive materials needed for elections. The ballot forms are designed at the Electoral Commissioner's Office and are printed at the Government Printing Office, a government department situated a few kilometres away from the Electoral Commissioner's office. Both offices are kept under strict security control and are guarded by a specialised unit of the police force round the clock during election period.

The ballot papers are printed in English. However, each candidate or party is allotted a symbol of identification which also appears on the ballot paper and a facsimile of which is already affixed at the 'nomination centre'.

The ballot forms are printed according to the number of registered electors per voting room, making an allowance of about one per cent for cases of spoilt ballot papers, and are numbered serially. The printing of ballot forms is done under strict supervision by and constant control of the Electoral Commissioner's office. All appropriate measures are taken to ensure that the ballot papers are security-proof and are kept in safe custody. Once the ballot papers for a particular constituency are printed, they are transported under armed escort to the Electoral Commissioner's office where each paper is checked for its authenticity by the returning officer and his senior staff. The quantities of the papers too are checked against the 'requisition form'. The papers are then sorted numerically according to the voting rooms and placed in stationery boxes, together with other election stationery. These boxes are labelled with the name of the polling station and sealed under the returning officer's seal.

Two days prior to the poll, these sealed stationery boxes are transported under armed escort from the Electoral Commissioner's office to the nearest police stations in the constituencies concerned, where they are kept under armed guard in police cells, the doors of which are sealed with the returning officer's seal.

Transparent ballot boxes are utilised for voting. There has been a fair amount of debate on the need to move away from the paper-based ballot, as the latter is tedious and expensive. The introduction of electronic voting machines is an option that the Electoral Bodies are seriously considering, but to date nothing has really materialised.