{"id":12770,"date":"2022-04-01T08:42:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T08:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain"},"modified":"2022-04-01T12:25:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T12:25:53","slug":"mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain","title":{"rendered":"Mauritians\u2019 cherished democracy comes under strain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>When a former attorney-general and government critic was briefly arrested at his home last May for organising a pro-Palestinian rally \u2014 of about 100 people who were said to have contravened Covid measures \u2014 the Mauritius Bar Association vigorously protested, calling it \u201cobjectionable police practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the media and civil society pushed back strongly against a proposal last year by the government\u2019s Information and Communication Technologies Authority to monitor and decrypt all social media content.<\/p>\n

The courts, meanwhile, are still hearing petitions against alleged irregularities in the 2019 election that confirmed Pravind Jugnauth as prime minister. Jugnauth assumed the position in 2017, as his father Sir Anerood Jugnauth resigned because of ill health.<\/p>\n

The younger Jugnauth\u2019s poll victory in 2019 was built on policies from his first years in office, including the introduction of a minimum wage and the completion of a light railway linking five towns.<\/p>\n

But there had been worrying irregularities at the elections, according to Roukaya Kasenally, associate professor at the University of Mauritius. These included, she says, a significant number of people being unable to vote and marked ballot papers found, after voting time, outside counting centres.<\/p>\n

Sheila Bunwaree, Mauritius university professor of sociology, contrasts what she sees as judicial foot-dragging in Mauritius with decisive court intervention in Kenya and Malawi, after similar allegations of irregularities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we can call ourselves a model of democracy any more,\u201d she says. Mauritius is regularly ranked Africa\u2019s most robust democracy by such organisations as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Freedom House.<\/p>\n

The latter\u2019s freedom index score for Mauritius, of 86, is above South Korea and Poland and just three marks below France. It is regarded by some, however, as a democracy in retreat in terms of room for dissent from the opposition, the media and civil society.<\/p>\n

The V-Dem Institute, which aims to measure the quality of democracy, put Mauritius among its \u201ctop 10 autocratising countries\u201d in its 2021 rankings. Mauritians, too, are nervous that their cherished democracy is under threat.<\/p>\n

An Afrobarometer poll last year showed 45 per cent of respondents as \u201cnot very satisfied\u201d or \u201cnot at all satisfied\u201d with the state of democracy in the country \u2014 compared with 27 per cent in 2012.<\/p>\n

Yet their support for the concept of democracy remained among the strongest in Africa, Afrobarometer said. Mauritians \u201coverwhelmingly reject authoritarian alternatives to democratic governance\u201d, with a 95 per cent disapproval rating for one-party rule, higher than in some western democracies.<\/p>\n

Mauritius has a history of regular democratic transfers of power since independence and a record of competent policymaking reflected in its impressive \u2014 and reasonably egalitarian \u2014 economic progress.<\/p>\n

Yet, politics has been dominated by two families, the Ramgoolams and the Jugnauths, both from the Indo-Mauritian community that comprises about two-thirds of the population.<\/p>\n

In the 54 years since independence, only when Paul B\u00e9renger served from 2003-05 has a prime minister carried a different surname. The younger Jugnauth\u2019s 2017 accession to the top job \u2014 as his father passed him the baton without having to hold a general election \u2014 earned him the nickname \u201cson of dad\u201d.<\/p>\n

Arvin Boolell, a former leader of the opposition Labour party, says power \u2014 economic and political \u2014 is concentrated in too few hands. Political primacy has bounced between two families and economic clout, particularly land ownership, has remained with a handful of Franco-Mauritian families that comprise about 2 per cent of the population.<\/p>\n

Skewed political and economic influence has somehow not led to stark inequality, though. Mauritius\u2019 Gini coefficient, an inequality measure, was 36.8 in 2017 according to the World Bank, better than the US, though signalling that the island was marginally more unequal than the UK.<\/p>\n

Many social activists report widening income divisions in recent years. There are perennial complaints that plum public-sector and quasi-public-sector jobs go to those with connections, not the requisite skills and experience.<\/p>\n

Nor have some top politicians been free from scandal. Former prime minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam was arrested, though never prosecuted, on suspicion of conspiracy and money laundering, after quantities of cash were found in suitcases in his house during a 2015 police raid.<\/p>\n

In the same year, the present prime minister was convicted for a conflict of interest over a property deal. The verdict was overturned on appeal. Bunwaree sees the first-past-the-post electoral system as a problem, making it difficult for minorities to win representation \u2014 particularly so-called Mauritian Creoles of African descent, about 28 per cent of the population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a winner-takes-all syndrome,\u201d Bunwaree says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve long been asking for electoral reform with a dose of proportional representation,\u201d she adds, \u201cbut that has never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. When a former attorney-general and government critic was briefly arrested at his home last May for organising a pro-Palestinian rally \u2014 of about 100 people who were said to have contravened Covid measures \u2014 the Mauritius Bar Association vigorously protested, calling it \u201cobjectionable police practice\u201d. Likewise, the media and civil society pushed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,245,255,241],"class_list":["post-12770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritian","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nMauritians\u2019 cherished democracy comes under strain - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When a former attorney-general and government critic was briefly arrested at his home last May for organising a pro-Pale ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mauritians\u2019 cherished democracy comes under strain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a former attorney-general and government critic was briefly arrested at his home last May for organising a pro-Pale ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-01T08:42:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-01T12:25:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/04\/img-6246ef3674a5c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"285\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mauritians\u2019 cherished democracy comes under strain\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-01T08:42:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-01T12:25:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain\"},\"wordCount\":769,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/04\/img-6246ef3674a5c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritian\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritians-cherished-democracy-comes-under-strain\",\"name\":\"Mauritians\u2019 cherished democracy comes under strain - 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