At a press conference this morning, Xavier-Luc Duval returned to the subject of his Private Notice Question on Friday. This concerned the proposal to register voters online. He said there was no reason why this should not be introduced in Mauritius. Especially since every Mauritian, according to him, has an identity card. For Xavier-Luc Duval, the Prime Minister is prevaricating by referring to the work of an inter-ministerial committee on the issue. “We in the opposition see no point in renewing registration. The PM’s attitude is disappointing”, he declared.
The opposition leader also referred to the fact that the 2022 electoral register includes 53,000 more voters than the 2019 register. For him, this reflects firstly an extra effort on the part of the Electoral Commissioner’s office but also that there was a huge problem in 2019. “Those voters were there. You must understand that the population of Mauritius is shrinking. The number of deaths is almost equal to the number of births. How come we have 53,000 more voters than 4 years ago? This clearly shows that the Electoral Commissioner’s Office has made a big effort to register voters. But more than that, it shows that there was a huge problem in 2019,” he said.
Duval clarifies Opposition’s position on vote count on polling day
Xavier-Luc Duval reiterated the opposition’s desire for the votes to be counted on polling day itself. He pointed out that even the Electoral Commissioner agreed. However, he made a point of clarification. He stated that the Opposition had never said that the votes should be counted in the polling station of each centre where people voted. “We don’t want to know which region voted for us. In Mauritius, in various places, there is a concentration of a community in one region. A politician doesn’t need to know which community or region voted for them. This is not good for national unity, because we are all human”, he declared. Xavier-Luc Duval added that the opposition wants the ballot papers to be collected, taken to a single school and then mixed. In this way, the results would be available for the whole constituency and not just for one school.
Duval: “Isn’t the CP contravening the law?”
The leader of the opposition also commented on the conflict between the Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions. He explained that, along with the judiciary, the two are the main players in the criminal justice system. This conflict, in his opinion, is hampering our justice system. But he also mentioned an important aspect. He questioned whether the Police Commissioner had the right to be represented by Paul Ozin King’s Counsel. “According to the Law Practitioner’s Act, a lawyer must be registered with the Mauritius Bar to represent someone in Mauritius,” he said. Xavier-Luc Duval added that his research had shown that Paul Ozin, KC, is not. “Isn’t that obstructing the law?” he asked.
