Constituencies of Mauritius

Mauritius

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Constituencies of Mauritius are the electoral boundaries of the Republic.The country follows the Westminster and elects 60 members of parliament for a run of 5 years .There are in all 21 constituencies^[1] in the Republic each of them returning 3 members with the exception of Constituency No 21 ,which returns only 2 members.The constitution stipulates in there shall be 20 constituencies and 1 created specially for the island Rodrigues as being part of the Republic.T

Those electoral boundaries are considered to be the main pillars for elections as they allow members of parliament to be elected and thus to form the government .As mentioned in the constitution ,The Electoral Boundaries Commission shall review the boundaries of the constituencies at such times as will enable them to present a report to the Assembly 10 years, as near as may be, after 12 August 1966 and, thereafter, 10 years after presentation of their last report.

The report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission shall make recommendations for any alterations to the boundaries of the constituencies as appear to the Commission to be required so that the number of inhabitants of each constituency is as nearly equal as is reasonably practicable to the population quota that is the number of inhabitants of a constituency may be greater or less than the population quota in order to take account of means of communication, geographical features, density of population and the boundaries of administrative areas.

History of Constituencies

Before 1967 ,according to the ancient constitution ,Mauritius was divided into 40 constituencies .This was represented each an elected member of parliament which would elect a Chief Minister along with a council .The constituencies still remains moreover the same till now but the new Constitution provided in 1992 ,many of the small 40 constituencies has been mixed to form a total of 21.

The results showed a directly members would be including 24 MPs of Hindu^[2] community ,3 Mps elected from the Muslims ,1 Mp elected from the sino-Mauritians and the 12 resting Mps were of Christian group .This affected the equality of representation thought ethnic groups which are considered as very sensible subject and then government decided to amend the law and move it to a system of Best Loser.

The Best Loser System

The Best Loser System is a method used in Mauritius to make sure that the minorities ethnic groups are well and equitably represented in the parliament .Apart from 62 directly elected members ,the constitution provides 8 additional seats which are allocated to the best losers who were candidates from the appropriate ethnic groups ,namely the minorities.Minorities are mainly build of Christians and Muslims with a small percentage of Sino-Mauritian.

In order to ensure a fair and adequate representation of each community, there shall be 8 seats in the Assembly, additional to the 62 seats for members representing constituencies, which shall so far as is possible be allocated to persons belonging to parties who have stood as candidates for election as members at the general election but have not been returned as members to represent constituencies.As soon as is practicable after all the returns have been made of persons elected at any general election as members to represent constituencies, the 8 additional seats shall be allocated in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph by the Electoral Supervisory Commission which shall so far as is possible make a separate determination in respect of each seat to ascertain the appropriate unreturned candidate (if any) to fill that seat.

The first 4 of the 8 seats shall so far as is possible each be allocated to the most successful unreturned candidate, if any, who is a member of a party and who belongs to the appropriate community, regardless of which party he belongs to.

When the first 4 seats (or as many as possible of those seats) have been allocated, the number of such seats that have been allocated to persons who belong to parties, other than the most successful party, shall be ascertained and so far as is possible that number of seats out of the second 4 seats shall one by one be allocated to the most successful unreturned candidates (if any) belonging both to the most successful party and to the appropriate community or where there is no unreturned candidate of the appropriate community, to the most successful unreturned candidates belonging to the most successful party, irrespective of community.

Where at any time before the next dissolution of Parliament one of the 8 seats falls vacant, the seat shall as soon as is reasonably practicable after the occurrence of the vacancy be allocated by the Electoral Supervisory Commission to the most successful unreturned candidate (if any) available who belongs to the appropriate community and to the party to whom the person to whom the seat was allocated at the last general election belonged:

Provided that, where no candidate of the appropriate community who belongs to that party is available, the seat shall be allocated to the most successful unreturned candidate available who belongs to the appropriate community and who belongs to such other party as is designated by the leader of the party with no available candidate.The appropriate community means, in relation to the allocation of any of the 8 seats, the community that has an unreturned candidate available (being a person of the appropriate party, where the seat is one of the second 4 seats) and that would have the highest number of persons (as determined by reference to the results of the published 1972 official census of the whole population of Mauritius) in relation to the number of seats in the Assembly held immediately before the allocation of the seat by persons belonging to that community (whether as members elected to represent constituencies or otherwise), where the seat was also held by a person belonging to that community:

Provided that, if, in relation to the allocation of any seat, 2 or more communities have the same number of persons as aforesaid preference shall be given to the community with an unreturned candidate who was more successful than the unreturned candidates of the other community or communities (that candidate and those other candidates being persons of the appropriate party, where the seat is one of the second 4 seats).The degree of success of a party shall, for the purposes of allocating any of the 8 seats at any general election of members of the Assembly, be assessed by reference to the number of candidates belonging to that party returned as members to represent constituencies at that election as compared with the respective numbers of candidates of other parties so returned, no account being taken of a party that had no candidates so returned or of any change in the membership of the Assembly occurring because the seat of a member so returned becomes vacant for any cause, and the degree of success of an unreturned candidate of a particular community (or of a particular party and community) at any general election shall be assessed by comparing the percentage of all the valid votes cast in the constituency in which he stood for election secured by him at that election with the percentages of all the valid votes cast in the respective constituencies in which they stood for election so secured by other unreturned candidates of that particular community (or as the case may be, of that particular party and that particular community), no account being taken of the percentage of votes secured by any unreturned candidate who has already been allocated one of the 8 seats at that election or by any unreturned candidate who is not a member of a party:

Provided that if, in relation to the allocation of any seat, any 2 or more parties have the same number of candidates returned as members elected to represent constituencies, preference shall be given to the party with an appropriate unreturned candidate who was more successful than the appropriate unreturned candidate or candidates of the other party or parties.

Therefore according to the system ,no Hindus have the right to be elected because they already form a rather big majority of those ethnic groups .However taking on ethnic groups ,some Hindus who are Tamil speakers ,telegu speakers and marathi speakers have been elected through the system and it was done lastly in 2000.

The Constituencies as from 1967

Constituency No 1

The Constituency, namely Grand River North West and Port Louis West is mainly composed of Christianity majority. It comprises part of Pailles, Point Aux Sables, La Tour König, GRNW and west part of Port Louis. With 40,572 voters, it is one of the most underdeveloped areas of Port Louis.

All of the vicinity fall in the boundaries of the Capital and thus form one of the 4 constituencies of Port Louis city. On political fields ,since long dated to 1976 ,the MMM has made a bastion of it .It is home to MMM MPs since long and no other parties have been able to be elected there .

Some famous members of parliament from the constituency is ,Late Dr James Burty ,former Minister of Rodrigues & Outer Islands and Anne Navarre Marie who is former Minister of Women Rights and still Mp elected from the constituency .It is noted that the constituency is composed of the GRNW Prison and different rehabilitation centers as well as handicapped centers and various orphanage. It also contains the University of Technology, Mauritius situated at la Tour Koenig .

Much interest has been showed on this constituency as 34 prisoners mounted a mutiny and escaped from the GRNW prison in June 2010.

Members elected for 5 May 2010 elections are as below

Name	Party	Number of Votes	Religion
NAVARRE-MARIE, Marie Arianne	MMM	15,834	Christian
BARBIER, Jean Claude	MMM	15,655	Christian
Veda Balamoody	MMM	15,103	Hindu

Constituency No 2

Officially Port Louis South and Port Louis Central, this constituency has been a renowned area as it is composed of the central area of the city and also the south part comprising suburb areas like Cassis, The Victoria Bus Terminal, The North Bus terminal, the Port Louis Market, Le Champ de Mars. It is a Muslim majority area and has a total of 18,867 voters.

The Deputy Prime Minister Rashid Beebeejaun is member of parliament from this constituency. He has been MP since 1995 and has been elected in 1995, 2000, 2005 and now lastly in 2010 .He is one of the leaders of the actual Government. Some formers famous Mps are Sylvio Tang, former Minister of Consumer Protection Unit.

The constituency was mostly a bastion of the MMM precisely from the very beginning to 2005 until Rashid Beebeejaun changed political views and separated himself from the MMM .He entered the Mauritian Labour Party and the consituency became a bastion of Labours .

Members of Parliament elected are as follows

Name	Party	Number of Votes	Religion	Position
Rashid Beebeejaun	MLP	8,617	Muslim	Deputy Prime Minister
Reza Uteem	MMM	8,245	Muslim	Opposition Member
Abdullah HOSSEN	MLP	7,986	Muslim

Constituency No 3

Also known as Port Louis Maritime and Port Louis East , the constituency no 3 is the smallest of the 20 having an electorate of only 17,186 of people .It has been carved just to satisfy ethnic representation .This was constructed out of the constituency no 2 just to implement the muslim community which was not enough represented in parliament .This constituency has always been a bastion of the MMM since the 1970s .The government of the MSM led by Sir Anerood Jugnauth had impoverish this constituency as they never had a candidate elected from there .All candidates elected were from the opposition side .Therefore they did not have an MP minister for long and taking into account that this particular electorate had not vote for Jugnauth and his government ,the latter initiated the 'if you not with us , you are against us' . It was the constituency which was let behind by then government in the 1980s making it one of the poorest areas along with constituency no1 .

The areas in this constituency are Plain Verte ,Roche Bois, Terre Rouge ,Batri Casser ,Caro calyptus among others. The 2010 elections resulted in having an MMM MP namely Ameer Mea , a Labour Party MP , minister for work Shakeel Mohammed and Cehl Meeah , leader of the Front Solidariter Mauricien .

Name	Party	Number of Votes	Religion	Position
Ameer Mea	MMM	7,278	Muslim	Opposition Member
Shakeel Mohammed	MLP	6,917	Muslim	Minister of Labour
Fakermeeah Cehl	FSM	6,204	Muslim	independent

Constituency 4

Port Louis North and Montagne Longue^[3] constituency is the 4th and last electoral boundary of Port Louis City .The areas are among the most impoverished places in the country .It includes St Croix , Kailason ,Creve Ceour ending in Montagne Longue .The constituency was among the constituencies left behind by the Jugnauth's government in the 80's as he had no Mps elected from there .It is a disputed constituency between the majority of Hindus and Creoles .

This constituency has always been a MMM bastion since 1976 but is now disputed between the three main political parties , the MSM, MMM and the Mauritian Labour Party .It has recorded a total number of 46,179 voters in the 2010 elections .

Name	Party	Number of Votes	Religion	Position
MARTIN, Maria Francesca Mireille	MSM	16,607	Christian	Minister of Women Rights
LESJONGARD, Georges Pierre,	MMM	16,535	Christian	MP
Kalyanee Juggoo	MLP	15,803	Hindu	PPS

Constituency 5

Pamplemousses and Trioletis the fifth constituency and most famous of the 20 .It is known to be a bastion of the Mauritian Labour Party since independence .It starts with the areas covering Pamplemousses ,Triolet ,Trou aux Biches ending near Mon Choisy .It is the 2nd most populous constituency with 56,620 voters registered after Constituency No 14 .It is a constituency which has a overall majority of Hindus reaching nearly 80% of the voters .

It has been the constituency of Seewoosagur Ramgoolam the father of the nation of the country. It is the only electorate to have return two Prime Ministers , Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and Navin Ramgoolam ,the incumbent office holder .It is a decisive boundary as most labour Mps are elected from there .

From 1968 to 1982 , Sir Ramgoolam was MP and from 1991 ,Navin Ramgoolam has been returned every time as 1st Member elected . The Prime Minister being always a Hindu is a very important factor to win over the elections . The MMM has never won any Mp from there alone .

The MPs from 2010 elections are as below^[4]

Name	Party	Number of Votes	Religion	Position
[[Navin Ramgoolam	MLP	27694	Hindu	Prime Minister
Devanand Rittoo	MLP	25,501	Hindu	Minister
Satya Faugoo	MLP	22,955	Hindu	Minister

]]

Constituency No	Name of the Constituencies	Electoral Population	Ethnic Representants	[5]
1	Grand River North West and Port Louis West	40,572	Christians
2	Port Louis South and Port Louis Central	24,642	Muslims Chinese
3	Port Louis Maritime and Port Louis East	22,488	Muslim
4	Port Louis North and Montagne Longue	46,179	Hindu Christian
5	Pamplemousses and Triolet	56,620	Hindu
6	Grand Baie and Poudre d'Or	48,379	Hindu
7	Piton and Riviere du Rempart	40,624	Hindu
8	Quartier Militaire and Moka	41,342	Hindu
9	Flacq and Bon Acceuil	50,883	Hindu
10	Montagne Blanche and Grand River South East	47,296	Hindu
11	Vieux Grand Port and Rose Belle	39,432	Hindu
12	Mahebourg and Plaine Magnien	36,242	Hindu
13	Riviere des Anguilles and Souillac	33,169	Hindu
14	Savanne and Black River	58,341	Hindu
15	La Caverne and Phoenix	53,548	Hindu
16	Vacoas and Floreal	44,053	Hindu Christian
17	Curepipe and Midlands	45,346	Christian Hindu
18	Belle Rose and Quatre Bornes	42,173	Hindu Christian
19	Stanley and Rose Hill	38,982	Christian
20	Beau Bassin and Petite Riviere	42,656	Hindu Christian
21	Rodrigues	26,930	Christians

1. ^ http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/eco/menuitem.51e395e56ea0f287df1ef89ba0208a0c/
2. ^ http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/eco/menuitem.37ba32a3c4783128d6c8662948a521ca/?content_id=3820bf6509b64210VgnVCM1000000a04a8c0RCRD#con8
3. ^ http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/eco/file/con04.pdf
4. ^ http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/eco/file/con05.pdf
5. ^ http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/eco/menuitem.37ba32a3c4783128d6c8662948a521ca/?content_id=260fa3cecb88d010VgnVCM1000000a04a8c0RCRD