Mauritius: Election observation

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, 290-291.

An amendment has been brought to the Representation of the People Act (1958)30 to provide for the presence of international observers in Mauritius. The Electoral Commission extended an official invitation to a number of international observation missions for the 2005 general election. These were the African Union, the SADC, the SADC Parliamentary Forum, EISA, the SADC Election Commissions Forum and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

The main observations and recommendations on the various missions have been (EISA 2005; SADC Parliamentary Forum):

  • elections were conducted in a free, fair and professional manner;
  • the professionalism, independence and autonomy of the Electoral Monitoring Bodies have been applauded;
  • low representation of women as candidates;
  • high voter turnout;
  • the need to provide a more equitable access to state media to all political parties;
  • revision of electoral constituencies;
  • a legal framework for political party funding;
  • a code of conduct for political parties, candidates and their agents needs to be established;
  • there should be a move towards a rolling register of voters to ensure that a greater number of voters are included; and
  • electoral reform, particularly for the improvement of representation, should be undertaken.

There is no tradition of domestic observers in Mauritius, nor does the law provide for it.

Code of Conduct

The amendement to the Representation of the People Act (77(4)) providing for international observers also proves that a Code of Conduct for observers may be proscribed, but no code was issued to EISA observers of the 2010 National Assembly election.

Observer missions and statements

2010 National Assembly election observer missions and statements.

2005 National Assembly election observer missions and statements

KADIMA, D 2000, Parliamentary elections 2000 - an EISA report, EISA.

Reference

EISA 2005 Election Observer Mission Report: Mauritius National Assembly Elections, 3 July 2005 [PDF document]
EISA Interim Statement.

REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE (AMENDMENT) ACT 2005, [www] http://aceproject.org/regions-en/eisa/MU/Representation%20of%20People%20%20Amendment%20Act%202005.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 8 Mar 2010).

SADC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM 2005 "Interim Statement'.