the opposition leader claims victory

The leader of the Mauritian opposition, Navin Ramgoolam, claimed, on Tuesday, November 12, the victory of his coalition in the legislative elections in this island nation in the Indian Ocean, after the outgoing Prime Minister, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth (PKJ), admitted defeat.

Navin Ramgoolam, the 77-year-old Labor Party leader and former prime minister, told supporters that the Change Alliance, which he led in the parliamentary elections, had won a landslide victory in the vote is held on Sunday.

“I hope PKJ will resign soon. He was beaten 60-0”welcomed Mr. Ramgoolam to a crowd of supporters gathered in his constituency. “The power of the people is stronger than a dictatorship”he noted again.

At the end of these elections, 60 deputies were elected on Mauritius and two others on Rodrigues Island. The remaining eight seats are allocated by the Electoral Supervisory Commission to ensure balance in community representation.

Dynasties

The final results have not yet been published by the authorities of this country, considered one of the most stable and richest democracies in Africa, but Mr. Jugnauth already admitted his defeat on Monday.

“We are heading towards defeat, and it is even clearer than the Lepep Alliance [qu’il dirigeait pour les législatives] is heading towards a great defeat for all”he declared to the press.

Mr. Jugnauth presented himself with the conclusion of an agreement at the beginning of October “historical” between Mauritius and London on the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago, seen as a major success for the Mauritian government after more than half a century of dispute.

But his hope of benefiting from this agreement at the polls was quickly dashed when extracts of telephone conversations between politicians, members of civil society, diplomats and journalists leaked on social networks in October.

MM. Ramgoolam and Jugnauth are members of dynasties that have dominated Mauritian politics since independence from the United Kingdom in 1968.