Ensuring that a good democracy prevails has been one of the main fights of the MMM. Amending the constitution in 1982 to ensure that elections are held after every five years;and giving Mauritius the first republic in 1992 are historical proofs of this fight.In line with this philosophy, today,the MMM is asking for an Electoral Reform, because there is the need for one. We feel that our current electoral system could be further improved so as to address the following: no or feeble opposition (1982, 1991, 1995, 2000), unstable government (1976), breeds communalism and casteism; which need to be addressed to so as to ensure greater democracy in Mauritius.
A select committee appointed by the national assembly in 2003 following the recommendations of the Commission on Constitutional and Electoral Reform (Sachs Commission) so as to address to the irregularities of the current electoral system without causing prejudice to the existing Best Loser System (BLS). The BLS was introduced in Mauritius as the Proportional Representation of minorities based on the communal politics of the 1950s and 1960s.
The recommendations of the select committee do make Mauritius move to a better democracy. Nonetheless, there are issues that have yet to be taken into consideration:
Rodrigues’s representation
The MMM has always been for the autonomy of Rodrigues. In a crowd of ten persons, if one person raises his/her voice, he/she will be heard. However, increase this crowd and leave the one person voicing the one opinion, and the crowd will ignore him/her. Following this logic, Rodrigues often remaining forgotten ought to have been taken into consideration.An increase in the deputies of the Island of Mauritius needs to be followed by and increase in deputies for the island of Rodrigues. It is to be noted that Louis Joseph Von Mally was a member of that select committee.
Mauritians living abroad
With the current FPTP (First Past The Post) system, it is understandable that it is difficult to allow for Mauritians abroad to vote from there. Even the proposed reform does not create the necessary conditions for them to vote. We are not to think that Mauritians abroad do not care about their homeland. They are the true ambassadors of our little dot in this vast world. Had we adopted the direct Proportional Representation (PR) system, we could have created the necessary conditions for our countrymen abroad to vote from where they are.
Electoral boundaries
We have witnessed thrice the whims of those in power not to present the Electoral Boundaries Commission (EBC) in the parliament. 1995 – 2000 and 2005 – 2010 with Navin Ramgoolam; and 2000 – 2005 with the MMM/MSM alliance. Even if during 2000 – 2005, the report was not presented by the EBC, parliament could have presented the previous report. Not carrying out this exercise falsifies the results of the FPTP system since the value of each vote cast is NOT equal to that of every other vote. As long as we are going to continue using wholly or partially the FPTP, conditions must be set-up that the suggestions of the EBC be ALWAYS presented and voted in the National Assembly . With direct PR, this would not have been necessary.
Anti-defection law
A defector (fr: transfuge) is a deputy who switches party allegiance or change sides from government to opposition or vice-versa. The MMM has recently adopted a firm position that it is against defectors. The MLP says that it is against defectors; which was to be proven by the New Local Government Act; but the recent actions of taking Jim Seetaram and Mireille Martin have raised doubts whether the MLP really favours an anti-defection law (fr: loi anti-transfuges).
Taking the Indian parliamentary model as an example since India has an an anti-defection law , India has around 800 deputies in its parliament. 20 defects over the 800 is comparable to 1 dissident over each 40 deputies. Mauritius can very well adopt an anti-defection law if the party list system is applied. Each defector will be replaced by another one on the party list of the same party. If the defectors are 10 deputies or more (10% or more), then the defectors can form a party of their own and stay as deputies in the parliament with NO party list. Do the defectors' party breaks up further; and ends up with less than 10 deputies, then all deputies lose their seats in parliament, and the party which they left on first place can name deputies as per its party list.
Political parties funding
An electoral reform must also take into consideration that the conduct of election campaigns is regulated to ensure legality and fairness; whereby funding of political parties. Funding ceiling ought to be calculated using a simple formula – the ceiling of funding of a political party ought to be an amount for each voter plus an additional fixed amount. More important to the law is to ensure that the law or regulation is respected.
Reducing the gap between villages and towns
As long as FPTP exist in our system, gap between towns and villages will continue existing. The little 30 or 40% of voters are not taken into consideration in a constituency where they have obtained no elected member. A party elected mainly by those in villages usually neglects development in towns and vice-versa. Had there been a direct PR system, political parties would acknowledge the importance of every single vote and they would ensure that development is in every nook and corner of Mauritius.
Communalism and casteism
2010 elections: Looking at the list of elected members, it is observed that all ethnic components of the Mauritian population are fairly well represented without having to apply the BLS. Mauritius is MORE THAN FORTY YEARS away from the years 1950's and 60's. The above mentioned report underlined clearly: “There is a grave danger of perpetuating communalistic politics. It is a known fact that candidates at constituency level are selected so as to “secure” the electorate of that particular constituency.” So long the FPTP and BLS exist; so long communalism and casteism will exist in Mauritius. With the direct PR; voting on a party list, there is no candidate having a definite constituency. Tomorrow for instance, we could very well see Bérenger serving the electorate of Triolet and Ramgoolam that of Rose-Hill. For Militants and Mauritians, this would be the ultimate bliss and reward for the long fought harsh battle – Remplacer la lutte des races par la lutte des classes. Year 1972; where Dev Virahsawmy got elected under the banner of the MMM in Pamplemousses – Triolet, could come back.
The Sachs reform has good points; but would only be the first step for grander changes. We have a golden opportunity to have elections based on party ideology politics rather than individual’s caste and communities. We have an opportunity to change the system for the long run so as to cater for the demands and aspirations of us youngsters; the main population of the years to come. You, our political leaders, do not let history condemn you having allowed racism, communalism and casteism prevail in our electoral system! We leave the floor to you; do not fail us...
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