Africa-Press – Mauritius. The leaders of the Labour Party, MMM and PMSD have met with the Electoral Commissioner this morning to discuss about the discrepancies which were noted in the organisation of the 2019 elections and to suggest remedial measures that would help remove the cloud of suspicion over the conduct of elections in Mauritius.
Even if the Supreme Court has rejected most of the electoral petitions lodged by unreturned candidates of the Opposition, MMM candidate Jenny Adebiro’s bid for a recount at Constituency No.19 in particular lifted the lid on serious anomalies and dysfunctions which have cast even more doubt on the integrity of the election process in 2019 not only in Constituency No. 19 but in other constituencies around the island.
The more so since it came out thereafter that there would also be the same issue of the figures in the Recapitulation of Votes form not adding up in Constituency No. 15, similar to what happened in No. 19.
It bears repeating that the offices of the Electoral Commissioner, Electoral Supervisory Commission and Electoral Boundaries Commission receive an annual allocation from the government earmarked and voted for in the budget. Moreover, a special fund is made available during an election year.
The latest information available online indicates that the organisation of the 2005 general elections cost taxpayers a total of Rs 128,466,059, including Rs44 M for ‘Election Fees’, and one can well imagine how much more had to be earmarked and indeed spent in 2019.
That is the price that taxpayers are willingly prepared to pay so that a democratic state and the democratic ethos should always prevail, and that the country’s leaders and its institutions will deliver good governance when the people demand it.
For More News And Analysis About Mauritius Follow Africa-Press
