Election and Democracy: Lessons to be learnt from Mauritius :: Part 1
- A report on the backdrop of vexatious election of Manipur, India -

L Muhindro Singh *

People going to the poll on Election Day in various places of Manipur :: January 28 2012

"Mauritius has never developed a 'bullet' culture, adopting instead a culture of the 'ballot'." (Bunwaree, EISA 2005)

According to the newly released London-based Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index which monitors 167 nations, Mauritius ranks in 24th out of 25 "full democracies" whilst Norway in the top rank and India in the 39 as "flawed democracy". The Index is based on five criteria: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture. On the basis of electoral democracy, Freedom House report 2011 also mentioned that Mauritius is free in political rights and civil liberty.

The Republic of Mauritius is a group of islands in the South West of the Indian Ocean, consisting of the main island of Mauritius, Rodrigues and several outer islands. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, with a total area of 1,969 sqkm, have an overall population density of 644 persons per sqkm. The population, estimated at 1.3 million, comprises Hindus, Muslims, Sino-Mauritians and mixed European and African origin. Mauritius has been successively a Dutch, French and British colony. It became independent from Great Britain on 12th March 1968 and acceded to the status of Republic within the Commonwealth on 12th March 1992. The official language is English, but French is widely spoken. However, Creole is the predominant mother tongue and several ancestral languages are still spoken. (Bertha C, EISA, 24 June 2005)

Mauritius has a good track record in respecting human and fundamental rights as well as democratic principles. Civil society is today regularly consulted on national policy formulation and stakeholders are involved in issues of national interest. (National Assessment Report 2010) Since its independence in 1968, Mauritius has a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system. Since 2002, the island of Rodrigues enjoys significant autonomy as well as its own regional assembly. National and local elections are held every five years under universal adult franchise and all the registered electorates who have attend the 18 years have the right to vote.

Mauritius is considered one of the most stable and democratic countries in Africa. Mauritius has an acceptable constitutional and legal framework, a largely satisfactory electoral system, a sound and transparent electoral process and legitimate and credible electoral management bodies (Bertha 2005). The constitution provides for freedom of speech, press and assembly and the government generally respects these rights in practice.

The electoral system used in Mauritius is the first past the post block vote (FPTP-BV) and best looser system. The present National Assembly comprises 62 elected members who are elected by party list from 20 constituencies returning 3 members each and only two members from (21) Rodrigues. Each voter has to vote for three candidates of their choice. If the voter chooses two candidates (for example), the ballot becomes invalid. Furthermore, 8 additional seats are allocated to the best losers who represent ethnic groups that would have been missed by the elected parties.

The advantage of the block vote system is that it allows voter preference for individual candidates. The disadvantage is that if voters cast all their votes for candidates from the same party the BV system produces highly disproportional results. (Mauritius Election Observer Report 2000, EISA) The independent Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and the electoral commissioner determine how the ethnic and political balance of the National Assembly will serve minorities by naming a maximum of 8 best losers.

Election related conflicts are quite prevalent in Africa. However, Mauritius has been fortunate in that in its more than 40 years of holding elections the country has never fallen victim to serious electoral conflict. (Bertha 2005) This has led to its becoming renowned as one of the most stable and democratic countries in Africa with its citizens enjoying political and civil rights. Any electoral challenges are managed through the judicial process. Mauritius has been committed to upholding the fundamental rights and freedoms embodied in its constitution and legal framework as well as to holding free and fair, credible elections.

Vote buying case is a big issue in many developing democratic countries. It is also learnt that no vote buying case is found so far in this tiny island, when I asked to some electorate, they said that "all the electorates have mobile phone so it will inform to the concern police officials, so such kind of happening like distribution of cash for vote will be very tough". The same response was also found when I made conversation with Chief Electoral Officer of Mauritius. The significance of mobile phone on the eve of election is very high for free and fair election in Mauritius.

Yes there is little bit suspicion that some candidates might have indulged in the malpractices that there is allegation of distributing some utensils and other material to the poor electorate with a view to influence them. The culture of donation by well wishers or corporate bodies to the prospective parties or candidate is appeared that can be influencing factor to unfair election. To get nominated from a party is very crucial that new comers has less chance though they said parties required any sum of money from candidates to secure their candidacy; however, once candidates were offered seats they must be ready to contribute a huge amount for party campaigns. (Bunwaree, EISA 2005)

Significantly election code of conduct was started on trial basis when there was by-election in the Quartier Militaire/Moka in March 2009. In prior to this, there was no specific rules or codes of conduct although there are various informal practices and unwritten rules by which parties have to abide. The media is a critical stakeholder in helping the electorate to make a well informed choice. Prospective candidates use newspapers, radio and TV to influence voters. Of these, TV is the most powerful electoral apparatus, followed by radio.

The publicly funded Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) enjoys an absolute monopoly in the Mauritius media structure. The monopolistic status and the broad audience that the MBC enjoys combine to make them the most powerful tool in the management of public opinion, especially during the election period. (Mauritius Times) During election campaign, streets and building facades in each constituency strewn with banners, posters and plastic ribbons popularising the symbols and colours of competing parties. Election manifesto is considered very seriously that all the parties have strong commitment to follow their policy programmes led down in the party manifestos that was also formulated through different level of responsible committees of the parties.

The Rodrigues Regional Assembly Elections 2012

All the electorates have well aware of their electoral system but one outsider will have tough to understand the system easily. The Rodrigues Regional Assembly is consisting of 18 members elected, 12 of whom for local region members and the other 6 for Island region members. Election system is mixing in the sense that electorates have 3 votes comprising of two local region votes and one Island region vote.

The local region votes shall be given for 2 candidates to be members for the local region. The Island region vote shall be given for a registered political party having submitted a list of candidates for election as Regional Assembly members for the Island region. The 2 Regional Assembly members for each local region shall be returned under the simple majority system. The members for the Island region shall be returned under the system of proportional representation. (The Rodrigues Regional Assembly Act 2001)

For this 2012 elections, altogether 24 candidates were in the fray as nominated by four political parties, all the four parties have submitted a list of 6 candidates each {FPR (Front Patriotique Rodriguais); Mouvement Rodriguais (MR); Muvman Independantis Rodriguais (MIR); OPR (Organisation du Peuple de Rodrigues)}.

Election is very likey to India, out of total 27,776 electorates 22,550 casted their vote (on 5 February 2012 at Rodrigues) which is 81.19%. For the convenience of electorates and officials the election was conducted in 78 voting rooms of different 15 polling stations. Surprisingly the election was very very peaceful that no report of violence or intimidation was found which is also proved that the police personals who engaged on the election duty had not possessed weapon / armed; this is the symbol of true and democratic election.

Election campaigns started with music gathering where party leaders have been trying to woo their supporters by consolidating their policy programmes that led down in election manifestos. In this regard, mention may be made two important issues that they pledged to strengthen or solve the water problem and the other for more autonomy for Rodrigues. Note, Rodrigues is another island that depends on the Mauritius but they have separate Regional Assembly to govern the region.

This paper is specially developed when the writer joined Rodrigues Regional Assembly Elections, Mauritius recently held on 5 February 2012 just after a week of Manipur Legislative Assembly Elections 28 January 2012. As the writer found a drastic contrast, it seems to compel to see the way for consolidation of democracy, whether it is possible in Manipur. The writer is now attaching in the University of Mauritius as nominated by UGC, New Delhi to make a comparative study on contemporary electoral trends of India and Mauritius.

To be continued.....