Prorogation of Parliament is Telling Sign Process is Poor

The process of modernising our electoral system that is. First Government takes literally forever to publish a white paper and when it does we are surprised -- or not -- that it's essentially the perverse 2012 Sithanen report. Second, it gives the very smart people of Mauritius a little over a month to send its submissions. Third, it throws Parliament into holidays because it has received many submissions -- so it says -- and needs time to analyse them. Really? Fourth, dramatic koz koze begins at Clarisse House between Ramgoolam and Berenger and we learn that they are also discussing about electoral alliance and a second republic. Hmm, so you need to put our Parliament into holidays to review all the submissions you have received but you then start discussing another complex -- and frankly unnecessary -- issue as modifying our system of government. Who do you think you are kidding?

The other thing that may lead you to conclude that we're still living in the middle ages is that submissions had to be sent by e-mail to Government. That's dumb for at least two reasons. First it is an opaque process. The second it deprives us from another live platform of efficient debating. It would have been a lot simpler for Government to have a blog on electoral reform.

But the good news is that there has been many interesting propositions that have appeared in the press and elsewhere. So all is not lost.