Book Which Improves An Amazing Electoral System Published

The FPTP version that we use in Mauritius since 1967 has served us extremely well but during the past quarter of a century politicians have been trying to replace it with a mixed system which would be a complete disaster. The principal purpose of this book is to help prevent this calamity by critically looking at all the main electoral proposals since 2002. 

It also provides more than a dozen vital criteria to evaluate any electoral system or proposition and will therefore put the debate on electoral reform on a firm footing. The book which can be pre-ordered right away refines an interesting solution, backed by a thorough analysis of electoral data, we presented in 2014. Happy reading!

Why Subron’s Mixing of Issues is Dangerous

I totally agree that we shouldn’t have to declare one of four communities to stand as a candidate. But where I definitely disagree with him is that we should include a dose of PR, go for double-candidacies and that 20 extra MPs is no big deal.

Adding a dose of PR will lead to chronic political instability, double candidacies will make it more difficult to keep really bad MPs out of parliament while our National Assembly is already too big and should be downsized, not enlarged.

No need to drag Krouink into the debate. This faux-patriotism shouldn’t fool anybody. 

How You Know the BLS is Not Subsumable

That's easy. Just check the democracy-shrinking bill on electoral reform that the PM will be bringing to parliament tomorrow. If a party doesn't line up at least 1/3 of women or men (see p6) it will lose its party status and will therefore not get any proportional representation (PR) seats. If a PR-MP crosses the floor his or her seat may be declared vacant under certain conditions. Clearly these are sanctions. But look for one if you don't line up candidates from more than one community and you will find none. Are there sanctions if names on the party lists don't reflect some of our diversity? Nope. Any sanctions if the best loser seats as defined in the dangerous proposal are attributed to members of one community? Ziltch.

We know that the BLS has deprived us of some really good oppositions. And that 50 years of progress is enough proof to do away with it because the best protection for any minority is policies that makes sense: progressive taxation, respect for the environment and solving national problems. But that's not what happening. Attempts are being made to fool us into believing that an autocracy will make us a united country. This is also what Rezistans ek Alternativ has effectively been doing for several years.

By-Election Experience Makes Strong Case For Return To 40 SMCs

Like it was in 1959 and 1963. Because as we've seen in riding no. 18 recently when electors vote for only one candidate in a constituency – SMCs stand for single-member constituencies – political parties immediately understand the need to put good candidates. And this kind of setup makes it easier for better debates between candidates from many parties to happen.

Plus we know our parliament is too big just by comparing to other countries. We also know it's too big for a simple reason. A referendum should be organised to let the people decide.

Trust you've noticed that candidates in a by-election don't have to declare in which one of four 'ethnic groups' they fall into.

Mauritius Discovers She Has An MP Called Tarolah

That was a few weeks ago. We also learned that he was a PPS. Mauritius found out about this obscure politician not because he made a game-changing contribution but because of what he did with his mobile. And while you would be hard-pressed to list half of the roughly seventy politicians that we sent to our National Assembly in 2014 it would not exactly be the first time. It would be an even bigger challenge to remember what they've contributed in making Mauritius better.

This is clearly a sign that our Parliament is way too big. And is costing us too much. It definitely highlights the absurdity of the suggestion that we need an extra 20 MPs to correct the lopsided outcomes that our excellent FPTP system produces on some occasions. It's silly for two reasons. One is that between 1977 and 2014 India has kept her number of MPs constant although the voting population there rose by half a billion. The other is that we can actually correct the imbalance by making our Parliament smaller. And that too without compromising the big advantages of the FPTP system or resorting to totally undemocratic devices like party lists and double candidacies.

Do You Know What A Priority is?

We have 161 days left to indicate to the Human Rights Committee what we intend to do to comply with their views. If it's easier for you that means we can send our response by February 27, 2013. That's a lot of time. The CPE exams begins on October 16. In 27 days. And if we don't do anything bold we will still fail about 1/3 of these kids.

We've been going nowhere for the past many years. So I would suggest we make a slight and temporary retreat on the BLS. At least until we fix the CPE exam disaster.

Why The MMM Wants To Get into Government

To consolidate our democracy, to get a new MBC, to fight corruption, to improve law and order, to boost the economy and to strengthen national unity. At least according to its leader.

Let's tackle a few of these reasons: consolidating democracy. The MMM doesn't need to be in government to deepen our democracy. Nope. They do that all the time. They lose a general election. The day after they say that general elections are imminent. Berenger then tries all permutations and combinations for its PM candidate. He even tries to get into an alliance with the Labour Party. He is then taken for a ride. He loses another general election. And the Nintendo starts anew.

Now let's look at boosting the economy. I am not convinced that the MMM will be able to do a better job than then the LP. Because they don't have the talent nor the will to deliver on such a promise. All they have is a pretty self-aggrandised view of themselves and of their place in history.

Finally insisting on keeping the BLS hardly qualifies as improving national unity.

Anu Amelior Nu Demokrasi

Adoption of Equal Opportunities Bill Creates Amusing Situation

Because this bill which is essentially saying that there is only one category of citizens was passed by people who, in the last general elections, accepted to be thrown in one of four arbitrary categories of citizens.

Suddenly Berenger Finds Electoral System Shabby

That after participating in nine consecutive general elections over a 34-year period, being a Senior Minister a number of times and even Prime Minister for 2 years in a government with a super majority. Why didn't he do something about it all this time?

But he can redeem himself a little bit by convincing the newly-elected parliament to repeal the best loser system.

Riding No. 4 Sends Birthday Girl to Parliament

Yep, Mireille Martin turned 35 on Thursday the day the voters of constituency no. 4 sent her to parliament for a second time. She got the most votes -- 16,607 votes which is 10,000 more than Cehl Meeah -- beating Joe Lesjongard by 72 votes while Kalyanee Juggoo came in third.

With Aurore Perraud getting one of the 7 best loser seats this riding will have three women representing it in Parliament. Not bad.

Rezistans ek Alternativ 2-0 Government of Mauritius

At last, some good news in the land of ti-lipie lor gro-lipie. The submission of Rezistans ek Alternativ that categorising candidates into four and rather arbitrary ethnic groups may not even have an elementary legal grounding has now been declared admissible by the UN's Human Rights Committee. That's after Justice Balancy ruled in favour of the political organisation some four years ago.

Although our Government has now six months to submit its position to the Committee and drag its feet a little longer, the right thing for our parliament to do would be to immediately chip that obsolete section off our constitution.