2014 Mauritian general election

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All 62 directly elected seats in the National Assembly (and up to 8 BLS seats)
Turnout	74.11% ( 3.71 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Anerood Jugnauth Navin Ramgoolam Party MSM Labour Alliance Alliance Lepep Unité et de la Modernité Seats won 33 4 Seat change 20 24 Popular vote 691,062 390,768 Percentage 33.88% 19.16% Alliance seats 51 16 Popular vote 1,016,551 785,645 Alliance % 49.83% 38.51%
Alliance results by constituency. The colour shade shows the percentage of the elected candidate with the highest number of votes
Prime Minister before election Navin Ramgoolam Labour Subsequent Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth MSM

General elections were held in Mauritius on 10 December 2014. Results gave the opposition coalition of Alliance Lepep an upset victory, securing 47 of the directly elected seats under the leadership of Sir Anerood Jugnauth.^[1] The Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité, composed of the Labour Party and the Mauritian Militant Movement, led by incumbent prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, only won a total of 13 directly elected seats.^[2][3]

Ramgoolam had governed the country since 2005 for two consecutive terms and was seeking a third term. The election was seen as a referendum to the current government's proposal to increase the powers of the president and making the position directly electable and introducing a proportional system, changing the current electoral system.^[2][4] Ramgoolam and his alliance with Paul Bérenger was seen as the clear favourite to win the election and would easily be able to adopt the proposed changes.^[5] Jugnauth's Alliance Lepep, led by the Militant Socialist Movement with the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate and the Muvman Liberater, heavily opposed the change.^[6]

In the aftermath of the election, Ramgoolam lost his own seat and his own party relegated to a mere total of four seats, with Bérenger's party winning 12 seats out of the 16 that the alliance achieved.^[6] He conceded defeat after voters rejected his proposals.^[1] Alliance Lepep won a total of 51 seats, with the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate achieving its best result since the 1970s.

The 84-year old Jugnauth, forming his sixth and final government, was appointed as prime minister on 14 December, effective from 13 December.^[7] He and his ministers were fully sworn in on 17 December.^[8] Eventually, he would give way in 2017 to his son, Pravind, after two years in the premiership and resign, becoming Minister Mentor under his son's government.

In the aftermath of the general election held in 2010, Navin Ramgoolam was reelected for a second consecutive term as prime minister under the coalition banner of Alliance de l'Avenir, composed of his party, Labour (PTr), and two other natural governing parties in the country, the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM), led by Pravind Jugnauth, and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD), led by Xavier-Luc Duval.

Under the new government, Ramgoolam remained as premier whilst Jugnauth was appointed as finance minister and Duval as minister of social integration. Both leaders were also appointed as vice-prime minister in addition to their portfolios.

Paul Bérenger's Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) contested the election alongside with two other minor parties under the coalition of Alliance du Coeur, which lost. Bérenger became leader of the opposition in the aftermath of the election.

On 22 July 2011, health minister Maya Hanoomanjee, from the MSM, was arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) following the government's purchase of the MedPoint clinic in December 2010.^[9][10] Hanoomanjee was accused of having conflict of interest with the purchase, after being dissatisfied with the valuation of the clinic. MedPoint was originally valued at Rs 75 million and Hanoomanjee thereafter requested for a revalution in September 2010, which result with the government purchasing the clinic for Rs 144.7 million.^[11][12]

The clinic was owned by Krishnan Malhotra and Shalini Jugnauth-Malhotra, the former being the brother-in-law and the latter the sister of finance minister Pravind Jugnauth, as well as the daughter of former prime minister and incumbent president Anerood Jugnauth.^[10] During the scandal, the clinic was often referred to as the Jugnauth family's clinic. The goal of the purchase was to convert the hospital into a specialised clinic.

Under pressure from the scandal, Hanoomanjee resigned from the government on 26 July, with her fellow colleagues from the MSM also filing their resignations on the same day.^[10] Jugnauth, Nando Bodha (minister of tourism), Showkutally Soodhun (minister of industry), Leela Devi Dookun (minister of social security) and Ashit Gungah (minister of public service) all left the government, leaving Ramgoolam's government with 36 seats in the National Assembly against 33 seats of the opposition.^[11][13]

Two months after leaving the government, Jugnauth was also arrested on 22 September over corruption charges and conflicts of interest under the Prevention of Corruption Act.^[14]

Following further conflicts with the government and Ramgoolam, as well as the aftermath of the MedClinic affair, Anerood Jugnauth decided to resign the presidency on 31 March 2012, citing disagreement with the "philosophy of the government" and the direction of the country under Ramgoolam's government, accusing it of leading the country to poverty.^[15][16] This would see the return and comeback of the former premier and statesman into active politics.^[15][17]

The relationship between the premier and the president had erupted following Paul Bérenger's announcement that a new opposition alliance was under works with his party, Mauritian Militant Movement, and Jugnauth's Militant Socialist Movement, a recreation of the MSM/MMM alliance in the early 2000s and dubbed as Remake 2000.^[15][17] Bérenger had several meetings with Jugnauth at the State House in Port Louis and Ramgoolam had asked the latter to confirm or deny the statement made by Bérenger and, if in the case of confirmation, to resign the presidency.^[16][18][19]

The National Assembly has 62 directly elected members; 60 represent 20 three-seat constituencies, and two are elected from a constituency on the island of Rodrigues. The elections are held using the plurality block vote system with panachage, whereby voters have as many votes as seats available.^[20] In what is commonly known as the Best Loser System, should a community fail to win parliamentary representation, the Electoral Supervisory Commission can appoint up to eight unsuccessful candidates from these communities with the most votes. The Electoral Commission divides the electorate into four communities: Hindus, Muslims, Sino-Mauritians and the general population; the latter comprises voters who do not belong to the first three.^[21] Unless the president dissolves the National Assembly early, members serve a five-year term.^[22]

Eligible candidates and voters are required to be at least 18 years old, citizens of the Commonwealth and have resided in Mauritius for at least two years before the nomination date.^[20] A total of 936,975 individuals were registered to vote in this election.^[2][4][23] Public officials stationed in Mauritius but enrolled in constituencies in Rodrigues or Agaléga and vice versa are eligible to apply for proxy voting.^[24] Since 2014, it has been optional for candidates to declare which community they belong to. Contestants who refuse to affiliate with a community are ineligible for a Best Loser nomination.^[25] Candidates have to be proficient enough in English to participate in parliamentary procedures. They also require the nomination from at least six electors in their constituency and a deposit to be paid, which is refunded if they obtain at least 10% of the vote. Individuals ineligible to be contestants include those who have committed electoral offences, have served a prison sentence exceeding 12 months, have undisclosed government contracts or have undisclosed bankruptcy.^[20]

Prime Minister Ramgoolam advised the president, Kailash Purryag, to dissolve the National Assembly on 6 October 2014.^[26] The writ for the election was issued on 7 November, with nomination day being on 24 November.^[23][27] The date for the election was set to 10 December.^[28] Two days later, on 12 December, the determination of the best loser seats were made based on the official returns.^[29]

In September 2014, the leaders of the Labour Party and the Mauritian Militant Movement, Navin Ramgoolam and Paul Berenger, signed an agreement to enter into an electoral alliance for the next general election.^[30] The plan of this agreement vowed to push through constitutional changes giving greater power to the now-ceremonial role of president.

Soon after, the Militant Socialist Movement, the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate and the Muvman Liberater (a new party formed from a break-up with the MMM due to their coalition with the PTR) formed a coalition to face the PTR–MMM Alliance in the next general election.^[31]

The Labour Party and the MMM each proposed 30 candidates, with each party having either one or two candidates in every mainland constituency. Like other mainland parties, however, they did not contest the two seats allocated to the island of Rodrigues.

The governmental alliance of the Labour Party and the Mauritian Militant Movement, under the name Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité (Alliance of Unity and Modernity), proposed the implementation of a Second Republic under a stronger and powerful presidential system.

The current system is purely based on the Westminster style of government where the head of state (being the President) is a ceremonial figurehead with very few executive powers. Under the PTR–MMM agreement, the new President would be elected through a single-round election across the country. Additional powers would include the prerogative to preside over the cabinet of ministers (currently led by the Prime Minister), dissolve the National Assembly, recommendations in various institutions including the appointment of ministers. The President would also be able to address the National Assembly as and when required, and would be elected for a 7-year term, as opposed to the five-year term served by the National Assembly.

While some political observers define this agreement as innovative (re-balancing the powers which are concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister) and a unification of the population through votes (as both parties have similar electorates in numbers), other people mention that Ramgoolam had always favored a presidential system of government while Berenger had argued for a Second Republic since 1987.

The agreement concluded that if the coalition wins a three-quarters majority in parliament, a bill would be passed to implement the new republic, with Navin Ramgoolam resigning to present himself as a presidential candidate while Paul Berenger would replace him as Prime Minister.

The Alliance Lepep (Alliance of the People) is composed of three parties and is led by Anerood Jugnauth. It was formed as a response to the formation of the PTR–MMM alliance. The program of the Alliance was mainly on the following measures that would be taken if the Alliance formed the next government. They are as follows:

• Review the Driver’s license penalty points system:

The alliance maintained that the point system is inappropriate and that it misapplied and penalizes professional drivers. However, it does not say whether the system will be fully or partially abolished or new criteria will apply.

• Identity card "Data Bank" to be destroyed:

As a citizen, Pravind Jugnauth initiated a case concerning the new identity card in the Supreme Court. He believes that giving and storing personal information including fingerprints and 3G scanned passport photos is an invasion of privacy. He promised that the “Data Bank” storing the data would be destroyed.

• Implement a decrease in prices of Gasoline and diesel.
• Introduce private TV:

The MSM–PMSD–ML alliance promised to introduce private television.

• Arrange MBC:

The MBC Act will be reviewed to increase more impartiality in political and national coverage in a view to protect free and fair election campaigns.

• Old age pension scheme at Rs 5000/month:

The old age pension which is currently at Rs 3623 (US$115) per month will be increased to Rs 5000 (US$157) per month.

• Syndicate police
• Minimum Wage:

Introduction of a minimum national wage rate, a policy that was implemented in 2018^[39]

Election results were declared the following day after the election. Alliance Lepep won a total of 51 seats against the Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité's 16 seats. Amongst the 47 constituency seats won by Alliance Lepep, 33 were won by the MSM; PMSD and ML each received seven seats.^[40] The Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité won 13 constituency seats, with the MMM receiving nine and Labour with four seats.^[41] The remaining two elected seats went to the Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais (OPR).^[1]

Under the best loser system, the Electoral Commissioner's Office designated 7 additional seats from the non-elected candidates to occupy the National Assembly based on the religious and ethnic declarations of the candidates not elected. Out of the seven best loser seats that were allocated in this election, the Alliance Lepep received four seats, which were all taken by the PMSD, and the Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité received three seats, all allocated to the MMM.^[42]

By party breakdown, in total, the Militant Socialist Movement received 33 seats, the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate with 11 seats and the Muvman Liberater with 7 seats in the Alliance Lepep's 51 seats. On the other hand, the Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité's 16 seats were divided between the Mauritian Militant Movement's total of 12 seats whilst the Labour Party's 4 seats.^[40][41]

936,975 individuals were registered to vote in this election and the turnout was 74.11%.^[43]

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
						Cons	BL	Total	+/–
	Alliance Lepep		Militant Socialist Movement	691,062	33.88	33	0	33	+20
			Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate	198,968	9.75	7	4	11	+7
			Muvman Liberater	126,521	6.20	7	0	7	New
		Total		1,016,551	49.83	47	4	51	New
	Alliance de l'Unité et de la Modernité		Mauritian Militant Movement	394,877	19.36	9	3	12	–7
			Labour Party	390,768	19.16	4	0	4	–24
		Total		785,645	38.51	13	3	16	–31
	Mauritian Solidarity Front			41,815	2.05	0	0	0	–1
	Rezistans ek Alternativ			23,117	1.13	0	0	0	New
	Rodrigues People's Organisation			21,874	1.07	2	0	2	+1
	Mouvement Mauricien Social Démocrate			19,338	0.95	0	0	0	–1
	Lalit			11,407	0.56	0	0	0	New
	Rodrigues Movement			11,113	0.54	0	0	0	–2
	Agreement for Parliamentary Democracy			10,548	0.52	0	0	0	New
	Les Verts Fraternels			10,191	0.50	0	0	0	0
	Réveille des Jeunes			9,775	0.48	0	0	0	New
	Parti Justice Sociale			8,395	0.41	0	0	0	New
	Forum des Citoyens Libres			8,210	0.40	0	0	0	0
	Rodrigues Militant Movement–Rodrigues Patriotic Front			5,787	0.28	0	0	0	New
	Parti Malin			5,214	0.26	0	0	0	0
	Mouvement Authentique Mauricien			4,071	0.20	0	0	0	0
	The Liberals			3,256	0.16	0	0	0	New
	Ensam			2,363	0.12	0	0	0	New
	Muvman Travayis Militant			2,216	0.11	0	0	0	New
	Mouvement Ene Sel Direction			1,853	0.09	0	0	0	New
	Parti Action Liberal			1,570	0.08	0	0	0	0
	Union Patriots Ilois Mauriciens			1,293	0.06	0	0	0	0
	Mouvement Travailleurs Mauricien			1,027	0.05	0	0	0	0
	Front Socialiste			1,005	0.05	0	0	0	0
	Militant Lepep Movement			563	0.03	0	0	0	New
	Parti du Peuple Mauricien			548	0.03	0	0	0	0
	Parti Tireurs de Sable			542	0.03	0	0	0	0
	Link to Build			448	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Independent Forward Bloc			423	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Ti Zwazo			398	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Muvman Independantis Rodriguais			388	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Rassemblement Socialiste Mauricien			351	0.02	0	0	0	0
	Poor People Party			349	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Parti Democratie Mauricienne			320	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Front Patriotique Mauricien			314	0.02	0	0	0	New
	Front Liberation National			271	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Mouvement pour la Liberation du Peuple			171	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Regional Assembly Man-Animal-Nature			156	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Mauritius New Generation Forces			145	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Mouvement Socialist National			121	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Mauritian National Congress			115	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Four Cats Political Party			66	0.00	0	0	0	New
	Mauritian Action Committee			63	0.00	0	0	0	New
	Mauritius Party Rights			33	0.00	0	0	0	0
	Independents			26,479	1.30	0	0	0	0
Total				2,039,898	100.00	62	7	69	0
Valid votes				686,517	98.87
Invalid/blank votes				7,843	1.13
Total votes				694,360	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				936,975	74.11
Source: OEC, OEC, IPU, Alliance candidate affiliations: [32][33][34][35][36]

Following the declaration of results, Alliance Lepep leader, Anerood Jugnauth, announced in a press conference that his administration will start working on the programme they have been elected to and promised to put the country "back on track for another economic miracle."^[44]

In a broadcast from the state-owned television station on 12 December 2014, Navin Ramgoolam conceded his defeated and congratulated Jugnauth's alliance, wishing them good luck. He also thanked his constituency after his defeat in his own seat.^[45] Thereafter, Ramgoolam submitted his and his cabinet's resignation to the president on 13 December.^[7]

Jugnauth was tasked to form a new government by the president, Kailash Purryag, and received his appointment on 14 December, with the appointment being backdated to 13 December.^[7] Shortly afterwards, Jugnauth and his cabinet were sworn in at State House in Port Louis on 17 December.^[8] At 84 years old, Jugnauth became prime minister for the third time and for a sixth mandate in his own right.^[43] Paul Bérenger was reappointed as leader of the opposition on 13 December.^[7]

The seventh National Assembly was convened on 22 December and oversaw the swearing-in of all members of the assembly. Defeated incumbent Militant Socialist Movement MP Maya Hanoomanjee, the former health minister who resigned after the MedPoint affair, was elected as speaker, becoming the first female holder of the office. In addition, Adrien Duval of the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate was elected as deputy speaker, and became the youngest elected member of the assembly at 24.^[46]