the opposition leader claims victory

Former Prime Minister and Alliance for Change candidate Navin Ramgoolam casts his ballot at a voting center during the Mauritian general elections in Vacoas on November 10, 2024. ALLY SOOBYE / REUTERS

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.

Read also | In Mauritius, social networks blocked following a telephone tapping scandal a few days before the legislative elections

Read later

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.

Follow us on WhatsApp

Stay informed

Receive the essential African news on WhatsApp with the “Monde Afrique” channel

Join

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

Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers With the handover of the Chagos Archipelago, the United Kingdom is resolving part of its colonial past in the Indian Ocean

Read later

The World with AFP

Reuse this content
-

-

PREV After a year in power, Javier Milei is on track to successfully turn around Argentina's economy
NEXT for Lidl, “human rights violations, such as forced labor, are intolerable” – Libération