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Elections in Mauritius
Since 1967, Mauritius has experienced 13 free and fair democratic general elections to choose a government.
The National Assembly has 70 members elected for a five-year term, 62 by plurality in 21 multi-member constituencies (plurinominal first-past-the-post with panachage) and, a maximum of, 8 additional members nominated by the Best Loser System.
The government is formed by the party or group which controls a majority on the unicameral legislature. The president and vice-president are then elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term by the parliament.
On a regional level, the country has village and district councils, and municipal elections every 6 years.
Mauritius has a multi-party system which is mainly dominated by three parties namely Militant Socialist Movement (MSM), the Labour Party and Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM).
Out of the 13 national elections, the MSM has won six (1983, 1987, 1991, 2000, 2014 and 2019), the Labour Party won five (1967, 1995, 2005, 2010 and 2024) and the MMM won two (1976 and 1982). The premiership of the country has alternated between two dynasties, namely Ramgoolam and Jugnauth, except for a short period of 2003-2005 where Paul Berenger was prime minister under an alliance with the Jugnauths.
Of the 70 MPs, 62 are elected by plurality in 21 multi-member electoral districts: 20 districts with three members each and one district (Rodrigues) with two members. Voters can vote for up to three (or two) candidates in their district (Plurality block voting). (There is malapportionment: the number of voters per district varies widely.)
An additional eight "best losers" are elected so as to balance the ethnic breakdown of the 62 already elected MPs. Every "best loser" seat is awarded to the community which is the most under-represented community at that stage of the process. The D'Hondt method is applied. The basic figures used to apportion the best losers come from the 1972 census (the last census to compile ethnicity statistics): 428,348 Hindu, 261,439 'general population', 24,374 Sino-Mauritian and 137,173 Muslim. The first four seats are apportioned to the best losers of the relevant community, irrespective of party. The next four best losers also compensate on the party-level: after the first four best loser seats, the next seat must go to the majority party until it has four, the remaining seats go to parties who did not yet receive seats. This makes it sometimes impossible to fill a vacancy, because there is no candidate available who is from ethnic group A and from party B at the same time.
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Elections in Mauritius
Since 1967, Mauritius has experienced 13 free and fair democratic general elections to choose a government.
The National Assembly has 70 members elected for a five-year term, 62 by plurality in 21 multi-member constituencies (plurinominal first-past-the-post with panachage) and, a maximum of, 8 additional members nominated by the Best Loser System.
The government is formed by the party or group which controls a majority on the unicameral legislature. The president and vice-president are then elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term by the parliament.
On a regional level, the country has village and district councils, and municipal elections every 6 years.
Mauritius has a multi-party system which is mainly dominated by three parties namely Militant Socialist Movement (MSM), the Labour Party and Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM).
Out of the 13 national elections, the MSM has won six (1983, 1987, 1991, 2000, 2014 and 2019), the Labour Party won five (1967, 1995, 2005, 2010 and 2024) and the MMM won two (1976 and 1982). The premiership of the country has alternated between two dynasties, namely Ramgoolam and Jugnauth, except for a short period of 2003-2005 where Paul Berenger was prime minister under an alliance with the Jugnauths.
Of the 70 MPs, 62 are elected by plurality in 21 multi-member electoral districts: 20 districts with three members each and one district (Rodrigues) with two members. Voters can vote for up to three (or two) candidates in their district (Plurality block voting). (There is malapportionment: the number of voters per district varies widely.)
An additional eight "best losers" are elected so as to balance the ethnic breakdown of the 62 already elected MPs. Every "best loser" seat is awarded to the community which is the most under-represented community at that stage of the process. The D'Hondt method is applied. The basic figures used to apportion the best losers come from the 1972 census (the last census to compile ethnicity statistics): 428,348 Hindu, 261,439 'general population', 24,374 Sino-Mauritian and 137,173 Muslim. The first four seats are apportioned to the best losers of the relevant community, irrespective of party. The next four best losers also compensate on the party-level: after the first four best loser seats, the next seat must go to the majority party until it has four, the remaining seats go to parties who did not yet receive seats. This makes it sometimes impossible to fill a vacancy, because there is no candidate available who is from ethnic group A and from party B at the same time.