Mauritius will go to the polls on November 7 to elect parliamentary representatives. The race is primarily between two leading parties, the Labour Party led by former Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam and Mauritian Social Democratic Party led by the Xavier-Luc-Duval. Political observers predict a hung parliament as the likely outcome of the elections.
Mauritius has a very unique system of electing representatives. A voter elects three candidates from each of the country’s 21 constituencies, including the offshore island of Rodrigues to the 70-member assembly. Those who win the lead in national tallies fill the first 63 seats. The rest are chosen from a list of “best losers.” The allocation of the best-loser seats to each of the four ethnic groups—Hindu, Muslim, Sino-Mauritian, and the General Population (African Creoles and Franco-Mauritians)—is determined using the d’Hondt system calculated by dividing its 1972 population by the number of seats already won plus one Since 1991.
Mr Pravind Jugnauth took over from his father Sir Anerood Jugnauth as prime minister in January 2017.Mauritius with a population of about 1.3 million became a republic in 1992. Once dependent upon sugar exports, Mauritius now boasts of a strong outsourcing and financial services sector, a booming tourism industry, and Africa’s highest per capita incomes.
