Mauritian general election, 1991

Mauritian general election, 1991

15 September 1991 (1991-09-15)

All 70 seats in the National Assembly 35 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Sir Anerood Jugnauth Navin Ramgoolam Party MSM Labour Party Leader since 1983 1991 Leader's seat Piton & Riviere Du Rempart Pamplemousses and Triolet Last election 44 seats 8 seats Seats before 44 8 Seats won 57 3 Seat change 13 5 Popular vote 944,521 670,631 Percentage 55.4 39.3% Swing 15.4% 16.9%

Prime Minister before election Sir Anerood Jugnauth MSM Subsequent Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth MSM

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General elections was held in Mauritius on 15 September 1991.^[1] Three main parties gained seats in this election: the Militant Socialist Movement, Mauritian Militant Movement and the Labour Party. The MSM formed an alliance with the MMM and the Labour party formed an alliance with the Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD). On 17 September 1991, results showed that MSM-MMM won 57 seats out of 60 elected seats.^[2] This gave 95% of seats to MSM-MMM leader Anerood Jugnauth and 5% to Labour Party-PMSD leader Navin Ramgoolam.

Parties and leaders

The main political parties taking part in the elections were the Militant Socialist Movement and Labour Party which were the current government, and the Mauritian Militant Movement which was the current opposition party. Earlier that year, Navin Ramgoolam^[3] became the leader of the Labour Party. As a result, the coalition of the MSM-Labour Party broke because Ramgoolam demanded that the deal between the parties should be reviewed. He then demanded to the leader of the MSM party, Anerood Jugnauth, that he should be allowed to hold the office of Prime Minister for half of the term (2.5 years). The rest would then be led by the second leader. However, Jugnauth did not want to step down in front of Ramgoolam. As a result, the party coalition broke in February 1991 and Navin Ramgoolam announced that his party will be going alone for government elections that year in September .

MSM-MMM Coalition

Jugnauth initiated the idea of joining hands with the other major leader Paul Bérenger before the elections. Jugnauth, who was the leader of the Mauritian Militant Movement(MMM) between 1976 to 1983 before the formation of the Militant Socialist Movement(MSM), teamed up with former colleague, leading to the MSM forming an alliance with the MMM.

It was decided that MSM leader Anerood Jugnauth would remain Prime Minister for the full term of 5 years and MMM leader Paul Bérenger would become a Minister. Berenger later became Minister of External Affairs.^[4]

It was the first time that the MMM and the MSM joined hands together after the famous break up of the two leaders. Notably, before Jugnauth became the leader of the MSM, he was member & leader of MMM while Berenger was President of MMM.They were both in same party and had won the famous 60-0 elections of 1982 with the leader of the PSM party, Harish Boodhoo. However, the team broke up in 1983 and Jugnauth was voted out of the party by all members of the MMM. With the formation of the MSM in 1983, Anerood Jugnauth became member & leader the same year. He joined hands with the previous Mauritian Labour Party leader, Sir Satcam Boolel, and ousted the MMM party out of government thus making Paul Bérenger become the leader of the Opposition.

MSM Members

With the continuous reign of Jugnauth of 10 years, after 3 mandates many members were worried. Jugnauth was seen to be unbeatable until then and no one was allowed to hold the office of Prime Minister in any kind of coalition. Sir Anerood always insisted that his coalitions would be led by him only.

Many members of the MSM left the party during the term and went to the Mauritian Labour Party in hope of political freedom. Rama Sithanen, Sheila Bappoo and Daram Gockool were members that did this and became ministers of the government led by Navin Ramgoolam and due to this, Jugnauth was under pressure to held general elections in 1995 instead of 1996.

Results

By constituency

References

Elections in Mauritius General elections 1948 1953 1959 1963 1967 1976 1982 1983 1987 1991 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014