The municipal elections for this June have been postponed to June 2023. The term of office of mayors and councillors will, thus, be extended by one year. This announcement by the Prime Minister during his Tamil New Year’s address at the Kovil Amma Tookay in Camp Diable has had a backlash. Protests and criticism are coming from all sides.
Firing the fuse
Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth justifies his decision by the health situation and the restrictions postponed until the end of June. “The regional elections in Rodrigues had to be postponed because of the number of cases. I don’t want the country to go through another wave of contamination. As a responsible government, we had to postpone the restrictions. We are in a double crisis with the Russian-Ukrainian war and inflation. My wish remains that the municipal elections be held as soon as possible,” he announced.
Pravind Jugnauth, however, recalled the incidents in Plaine-Magnien where Bobby Hureeram and Stephan Toussaint were booed for not inviting the village president to the meeting. These incidents led to the arrest of four people, including the president of the village council. There were also the ‘disorderly’ reactions of the public in Vacoas during a radio programme with politicians, Rajen Bablee, Nando Bodha and Patrick Assirvaden and the town mayor, Praveen Kumar Ramburn, who even recorded a ‘precautionary measure’ after expressing fear for his life after the barrage of insults in his face he received. The Head of Government commended “the authorities for enforcing law and order. Members of the public have the right to disagree with me or members of the government but they cannot create disorder and make situations more chaotic. The public must respect the law. I ask the public not to be taken in by the shenanigans of the Opposition.”
A protest resulting in 10 arrests
This peaceful demonstration took place in front of the Camp Diable Kovil where the PM was giving his speech. It was an initiative of a dozen young people from the locality, who expressed their dissatisfaction with the list of speakers endorsed by the Mauritius Temples Federation, which did not include any member of the Opposition, while MP Yogida Sawmynaden was invited to speak at the ceremony. They implied that the MTTF was at the service of the government. The police intervened to stop the demonstration, mainly because of the presence of the PM, as they feared that it would get out of hand. The young people were taken to the police stations of Camp Diable and Rivière des Anguilles for questioning. This peaceful demonstration was however announced on Wednesday 13 April.
PTr: PM shirks his responsibilities
The leader of the Labour Party, Arvin Boolell, says bluntly that “this announcement is due to the unpopularity of the government. They have chosen to shirk their responsibilities. This will not stop us from being on the ground. The PTr is as determined as ever and we have other plans. We want an agreement with all the opposition parties.” He made it clear that the PTR will retain its autonomy and that the party is ready to welcome those disappointed with the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) party.
PMSD: Lame Excuse
The Secretary General of PMSD, Dr Mamade Khodabaccus blasted that “this new dismissal is precisely why the MSM is unpopular. The government is using Covid-19 as a front. It’s funny that France and England don’t postpone their elections. They are just Lame Excuses. After the Manhattan episode in Vacoas, they are looking for all sorts of reasons to buy time. They are afraid to go to the field.”
MMM: Falsely democratic
Ajay Guness, the deputy leader of the MMM, does not mince his words and judges Pravind Jugnauth for being a false democrat. “This is a violation of democracy because the term of office of the municipal councillors will last for eight years. The regional elections in Rodrigues were held during a pandemic and there is no reason why the municipal elections should be postponed. This false democrat is on the run. They know the extent of their unpopularity.”
RM: 4 key factors in this unpopularity
Nando Bodha, the leader of the Rassemblement Mauricien, explains that there are 4 key factors that make the PM unpopular: “the raid by councillors on the streets, the crackdown following the incidents in Plaines Magnien and Vacoas, the sale of 200 million US dollars by the Bank of Mauritius on the foreign exchange market the very next day after the Minister of Finance announced that everything is going great, something that discredited Padayachy, the leakage of extremely important documents that were supposed to be under high level security, a fact that led to the announcement of the postponement of the elections in a snatch and grab manner… all this shows the weakness of the current government in this step that undermines the freedom of expression of citizens. And if you analyse it well, the government only has 37% of the votes in the town. So, I understand that they have decided to back off while they rebuild their popularity. The question remains, will this refrain the inevitable?”
