2000 Mauritian general election

← 1995 12 September 2000 2005 →
All 70 seats in the National Assembly 35 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Anerood Jugnauth Navin Ramgoolam Party MSM Labour Party Alliance MSM/MMM Ptr–PMXD Seats won 54 6 Popular vote 951,643 672,336 Percentage 51.34% 36.27%
Prime Minister before election Navin Ramgoolam Labour Party Subsequent Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth MSM

Politics of Mauritius
Constitution
Presidency President Prithvirajsing Roopun Vice-President Eddy Boissezon
Government Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth Deputy Prime Minister Steven Obeegadoo Cabinet
Legislature National Assembly Speaker: Sooroojdev Phokeer Leader of the Opposition Xavier-Luc Duval
Judiciary Supreme Court Chief Justice : Rehana Mungly-Gulbul
Elections Political parties Recent elections Presidential: 2008 General: 2019 2024
Administrative divisions Constituencies Districts Outer islands
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Alan Ganoo Diplomatic missions of / in Mauritius Passport Visa requirements Visa policy
v t e

General elections were held in Mauritius on 11 September 2000 to elect the members of the National Assembly.

The opposition Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) party decisively won the elections in coalition with the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM), defeating the governing Mauritian Labour Party (MLP) led coalition. They formed together the MSM/MMM As a result, in a pre-election deal Anerood Jugnauth of the Militant Socialist Movement became Prime Minister of Mauritius before handing over to Paul Bérenger of the Mauritian Militant Movement in 2003; Bérenger would become the first non-Hindu Prime Minister of Mauritius.^[1]

Background

The Mauritian Labour Party led by Navin Ramgoolam had governed Mauritius since winning the 1995 election. A new election had to be held by December 2000 and Ramgoolam dissolved parliament to call the election on 11 August 2000. He expected to be able to win the election in a three-way contest with the Mauritian Militant Movement and Militant Socialist Movement parties splitting the opposition vote between them.^[2] However ten days after the election was called the two main opposition parties agreed a deal.^[1][2]

The MSM led by Anerood Jugnauth and MMM led by Paul Bérenger agreed that if they won the election Jugnauth would become Prime Minister. They agreed that after three years he would step down as Prime Minister to become the President of Mauritius with enhanced powers, and that Bérenger would become Prime Minister, the first non-Hindu to do so.^[2]

Election rules

The election was conducted under the first past the post system with three Members of parliament being elected from each of 20 mainland constituencies. A further two MPs were elected from the island of Rodrigues. Each voter was required to vote for three candidates. Once these 62 MPs were decided the Supervisory Electoral Commission chose the eight 'best losers' to prevent any ethnic community or political party from being underrepresented. The Commission chose four MPs to balance the ethnic groups (Hindus, Muslims, Chinese and general population) and another four to balance the political parties. The 'best losers' could only come from candidates who came fourth in the 20 mainland constituencies.^[3][4]

Campaign

There were 43 parties putting forth 535 candidates but the main contest was between the two main coalitions that campaigned on similar platforms with the economy being the dominant election issue.^[5] The governing Mauritian Labour Party promised to raise civil servants' wages and reduce the prices of drinks while the main opposition attacked corruption. Both the government and opposition parties pledged to create 70,000 jobs.^[6]

The campaign was peaceful and election day was quiet with the sale or serving of alcohol banned for two days during the election to prevent trouble.^[7] Observers from the Southern African Development Community praised the election for its efficient and fair conduct and the high turnout.^[8] The opposition Mauritian Militant Movement and Militant Socialist Movement parties won a decisive victory almost wiping out the governing party and the Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam admitted defeat the day after the election.^[9] Gender activists were disappointed with the results which saw only four seats won by women, a decline on the previous election in 1995.^[10]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				Cons	BL	Total
	MMM–MSM	951,643	51.34	54	4	58
	Labour Party–PMXD	672,336	36.27	6	2	8
	Hizbullah	59,232	3.20	0	0	0
	National Democratic Movement Raj Dayal	54,960	2.97	0	0	0
	Rodrigues People's Organisation	17,317	0.93	2	0	2
	Rodrigues Movement	15,801	0.85	0	2	2
	Lalit	14,960	0.81	0	0	0
	Mauritian People's Party	6,478	0.35	0	0	0
	Nouvo Lizour	5,152	0.28	0	0	0
	Tamil Council	3,787	0.20	0	0	0
	Liberal Action Party	3,444	0.19	0	0	0
	Mauritian Authentic Movement	3,225	0.17	0	0	0
	Mauritian Action Committee	2,668	0.14	0	0	0
	Mauritian Democratic Movement	2,211	0.12	0	0	0
	Mauritian Union	1,672	0.09	0	0	0
	Mauritian National Movement	1,485	0.08	0	0	0
	Agricultural Planter Movement	665	0.04	0	0	0
	Mauritian Democracy	490	0.03	0	0	0
	Mauritian Party of Xavier-Luc Duval	449	0.02	0	0	0
	Socialist Labour Party	120	0.01	0	0	0
	Mauritius Party Rights	107	0.01	0	0	0
	Independents	35,263	1.90	0	0	0
Total		1,853,465	100.00	62	8	70
Valid votes		623,463	98.85
Invalid/blank votes		7,263	1.15
Total votes		630,726	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		780,031	80.86
Source: ECM, African Elections Database

Constituency winners