Sada Reddi
Africa-Press – Mauritius. At the present time, supporters of both the government and of opposition parties seem to be giving increasing attention to the forthcoming general elections, speculating about the date it is likely to be held. The Prime Minister has even dismissed the rumours about early elections. On the other hand, the electorate would have preferred to have a fixed date for elections rather than leave it as the prerogative of the Prime Minister, whoever is in office, to decide.
Election dates fixed by legislation would be fairer to all parties. It does not give the incumbent parties any undue advantage and, most of all, it saves the country precious time and does not keep the electorate on its toes with permanent electioneering. It is argued by many that abuse can be made of the election date-fixing prerogative to give incumbent parties a tactical advantage for the prior announcement of certain measures, mostly populist, which makes it difficult for opposition parties to counter appropriately. In many countries it has been shown that that such a tactical advantage has enabled incumbent parties to get re-elected to power.
However, there is a flaw in this argument when applied to democratic states. If one accepts that this were true in a democratic polity, it would suggest there would never be any change in government and the incumbent parties would always remain in power. In the case of Mauritius, it is doubtful whether the prerogative of fixing elections has enabled parties to remain in power though this perception is very strong among politicians and the electorate. In fact, in the past several incumbent parties/alliances had been booted out despite the tactical advantage drawn from the election date-fixing prerogative.
In 1966 Gaetan Duval, the then leader of the PMSD, grudgingly agreed to the Stonehouse modification of the Banwell Report on the promise that elections would be held in November or December 1966. Dr Seewoosagur Ramgoolam resisted the pressure to call for elections; however, following further pressure from Colonial Office mandarins he fixed the elections for August 1967.
The date chosen coincided with the crop season when there would be an increase in employment and sugar revenue would trickle down creating a feel-good factor among pockets of the working classes – dockers, sugar industry workers, small planters, in fact the whole population. Yet the Independence Party almost lost the 1967 elections and was saved by the three urban constituencies which were initially expected to vote for the PMSD. Read More… Become a Subscriber
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