Parliamentary representation of minority communities: The Mauritian experience

Africa Today

Volumn 44, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 61-

  Mathur, Raj ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0040151460     PISSN: 00019887     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (29)

1. Despite the British conquest of the island from the French in 1810, Mauritius was permitted to keep its language - French. To this day, although English is the official language of the Republic of Mauritius, French - or, rather, a French-based patois - is still the most widely spoken language.
2. These provisions are contained in Schedule I of the Constitution of Mauritius. See The Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius (Port Louis: Mauritius Government Printer, 1992).
3. Within each of the four officially recognized communities are several subgroups based primarily on differences in language, caste, and religion. Also, the Hindu community and the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community are ethnic Indian.
4. The percentages are based on the population census figures of 1972, although the percentage weightings of each community have remained almost the same to this day. See note 13. For the census figures, see 7972 Population Census of Mauritius (Port Louis: Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, 1974).
5. In 1958, Sir Malcolm Trustram-Eve, a British electoral commissioner, divided the island into forty single-member constituencies with the hope of ensuring safe and adequate representation for each section of the Mauritian population. For the Trustram-Eve report, see Sessional Paper no. 1 of 1958, Report of the Mauritius Electoral Boundary Commission (Port Louis: Mauritius Government Printer, 1958).
6. Harold Banwell, who was appointed electoral commissioner in 1966, grouped the forty single-member constituencies in pairs (see previous note), thus providing for twenty constituencies of three members each, to ensure adequate representation of the various communities in the assembly. See Banwell's report in Sessional Paper no. 5 of 1966, Report of the Mauritius Electoral Boundary Commission (Port Louis: Mauritius Government Printer, 1966).
7. Professor S. A. de Smith was, in a sense, the constitutional expert for the colonies. In that capacity, he helped to draft the independence constitutions of many former British colonies. He came to Mauritius as a constitutional commissioner in 1964. See Professor de Smith's report in Sessional Paper no. 2 of 1965, Report of the Mauritius Electoral Boundary Commission (Port Louis: Mauritius Government Printer, 1965).
8. In 1956, the British minister for the colonies attempted to impose a system of proportional representation on Mauritius to ensure adequate representation for minorities, but he was forced to withdraw his proposals following the strong protest of the majority Mauritius Labour Party.
9. Constitution, Schedule I, paragraph 5(1), p. 123.
10. Ibid., paragraph 1(1), p. 120.
11. The Electoral Supervisory Commission is an independent commission set up under Section 38(2) of the Constitution. Its role is to supervise registration of the electors and the conduct of elections.
12. Constitution, Schedule I, paragraph 3(1), p. 121.
13. The population census of 1972 is used because in June 1982 the ruling alliance decided that the people would no longer have to state their communal appurtenance. This was done to promote the nation-building process. Accordingly, Schedule I, paragraph 5(8) of the Constitution, which initially enjoined the authorities to use the last official census to calculate the Best Losers, was amended to read the "1972 official census of the whole population." As pointed out in note 4, however, there has been no significant change in the percentage weightings of each community.
14. Constitution, Schedule I, paragraph 5(8), pp. 124-125.
15. This assumption is based on a false premise-namely, that members of Parliament (MPs) represent only the members of their respective communities. In Mauritius, as in other parliamentary democracies, MPs represent the entire constituency.
16. Constitution, Schedule I, paragraph 5(2), p. 123.
17. Ibid., paragraph 5(9), p. 125.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., paragraph 5(4), p. 123.
20. Ibid., paragraph 5(5), pp. 123-124.
21. Ibid., paragraph 5(7), p. 124.
22. The victorious alliance won 64 percent overall, which was reflected in practically all of the constituencies. For the electoral statistics of the 1982 general election, see Hansraj Mathur, Parliament in Mauritius (Oxford: Editions de l'Ocean Indien, African Books Collective, 1991).
23. The victorious party obtained 100 percent of the direct election seats as a result of the first-past-the-post simple majority system, even though it won only 64 percent of the votes cast. In reality, therefore, 36 percent of the votes cast went to the defeated parties.
24. Constitution, Schedule I, paragraph 5(9), p. 125.
25. "Roussety v. Electoral Supervisory Commission and Ors," Mauritius Reports 1982 (Port Louis: Mauritius Government Printer, 1985), pp. 208-213.
26. Ibid., p. 213.
27. Mauritius Reports 1991 (Port Louis: Best Graphics, 1992), pp. 166-172.
28. Communalism is the promotion of the sectarian interests of a particular community regardless of the harm that may be caused to the national interest.
29. For the statistics of all general elections held from 1967 to 1987, see Mathur, Parliament, pp. 259-313.