Mauritius: Redemocratisation

Updated 2002

After the lifting of the state of emergency in 1976 Mauritius reverted to democracy and held general elections, which were won by the ruling Labour Party. The MMM won 40% of the vote and nearly half the seats in Parliament (Library of Congress 1994).

In 1982 the MMM in coalition with the Parti Socialiste Mauricien (PSM), which had split of from the Labour Party, won a landslide victory at the polls. The following year the MMM split and a breakaway group merged with the PSM to form the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM) with Sir Aneerood Jugnauth as leader. After another election in August 1983 a government was formed by a coalition of the MSM and the Labour Party which maintained power after the elections of 1987.

In late 1988 the coalition began to come apart, and to fend off the threat posed by a resurgent Labour Party, the MSM allied itself with the MMM. In the 1991 elections the MSM/MMM coalition won a convincing mandate and moved to proclaim Mauritius a republic. Prior to the 1995 elections a substantial realignment took place, with the MSM teaming up with the newly formed Rassemblement Militant Mauricien (RMM) while the MMM formed an alliance with the Labour Party.

After 13 years in power (1982-1995), the MSM and its ally, the RMM, was defeated by the Labour Party/MMM alliance in December 1995. However, the MSM/MMM alliance was reconstituted for the 2000 election, which they subsequently won convincingly (Southern African Research and Documentation Centre 2000). Thus, the ruling parties have lost elections twice, in 1982 and 1995 and each time transfer of power took place peacefully, providing further evidence of democratic consolidation in Mauritius.

References

Extracted from KADIMA, D 2000, Parliamentary elections 2000 - a report, EISA.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1994 "Independent Mauritius", IN Library of Congress Country Studies, [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mu0016) [opens new window] (accessed 24 Oct 2007).

SOUTHERN AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION CENTRE 2000 "Opposition alliance sweeps to victory in Mauritius", [www] http://www.sardc.net/sd/elections2000/mauritius/mau_victory.html [opens new window] (accessed 24 Oct 2007).