Mauritians to Head to the Polls

There is no clear lead for any party as Mauritius looks ahead to its general election on Thursday, 7thNovember.

As it stands, the most likely outcome is a coalition government between two of the leading parties, the Labour Party, headed by former Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam, and the Mauritian Social Democratic Party, led by Xavier-Luc Duval, a former Deputy Prime Minister.

They are expected to join forces to unseat the ruling Alliance Lepep coalition, led by the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) leader Pravind Jugnauth.

Mauritius has a complex electoral system and is one of the few countries that relies on the D’Hondt method, a highest averages system of proportional representation for allocating seats.

Voters elect three candidates to the 70-seat assembly from each of the country’s 21 constituencies, with the remaining spaces being filled by “best losers”.

Prime Minister Jugnauth became Prime Minister in 2017 when his father and outgoing leader, Anerood Jugnauth, chose him to succeed him.

Anerood Jugnauth is the country’s longest post-independence leader, serving first from 1982-1995, followed by a second stint between 2000-2003, before his final term between 2014-2017.

Since the country was declared a republic in 1991, no party has won either a majority to form a government, or a second term.

Mauritius is routinely seen as Africa’s most progressive country, ranked the 17th most democratic country in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2018 Democracy Index, placing higher than Spain, South Korea and the United States.