Mauritius: Secrecy of the ballot

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, 293.

Secrecy of the ballot is a well-entrenched tradition during Mauritian elections, and there have never been any recorded incidents where voters were intimidated to vote for a particular candidate or party, or reveal for whom they have voted. Each voter receives a voting paper which is stamped before everyone present with the Electoral Commission's official stamp. The voting booth provides adequate seclusion for confidentiality of voting. The voter has to fold the paper after voting so as not to reveal the vote, but only the stamp mark, before dropping it into the transparent ballot box. However, secrecy is compromised when it comes to severely handicapped persons, namely the blind. In such cases, the voter is assisted by a polling room officer who, after verbal instructions received from the voter, enters the vote on the ballot paper.