Opposition coalition, the Alliance for Change (Alliance du Changement) won Mauritius’ legislative elections held on 10 November, securing 60 of the 62 (96.8 per cent) directly elected seats in the unicameral National Assembly. The Rodrigues People’s Organisation (Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais) won the remaining two seats, with the incumbent Alliance of the People (Alliance Lepep) coalition failing to secure an elected seat. Turnout was 79.3 per cent of registered voters (up from 77.0 per cent in 2019). Of the 891 candidates contesting the elections, 165 (18.5 per cent) were women, of whom 11 won seats. An additional woman was appointed to the Assembly by the country’s Electoral Commissioner as one of four unsuccessful candidates under the country’s Best Loser System, which allows for up to eight seats to be allocated to the highest-polling losing candidates from underrepresented ethnic groups. Women, therefore, hold 12 of the 66 (18.2 per cent) seats in parliament - down from 2019, when there were 14 female representatives in a then-larger Assembly of 72 seats (19.4 per cent). International observers assessed the elections to have been credible, transparent and peaceful, but criticised the under-representation of women among candidates.       

Sources: Office of the Electoral Commissioner (1), Office of the Electoral Commissioner (2), Le Mauricien, International IDEA, Defimedia, SADC Electoral Observation Mission, African Union Electoral Observation Mission   

On 1 November, the Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA), suspended access to all social media platforms, announcing that the suspension would remain in effect until 11 November, the day after the country’s legislative elections. Access to social media was in fact restored 24 hours later following public outcry, but the suspension was notable for being the country’s first. The ICTA justified the ban on national security grounds, stating that it was a necessary response to ‘illegal postings’, a reference to a series of leaked audio recordings of phone conversations involving, among others, senior politicians, diplomats, journalists, and police officers. The opposition accused the government of using the ban to limit the fallout from the leaks, which have come to be referred to as ‘the wiretapping scandal’.

Sources: Information and Communication Technology Authority, Access Now, Radio France Internationale, Human Rights Watch, Al Jazeera (1), Al Jazeera (2)

On 4 October, Mauritius’ Supreme Court delivered a judgement de-criminalising same-sex relations in the country. In its decision, the Court found that the colonial-era law prohibiting ‘sodomy’ breached a constitutional protection against discrimination and ruled that it should be interpreted to exclude consensual sexual intercourse between male adults. While the court noted that the law is ‘rarely, if ever’ enforced against gay men, it found that the threat of arrest, prosecution and conviction had a very significant impact on them, entrenching stigma and encouraging discrimination. The ruling was welcomed by the UN and rights organisations.

Sources: The Supreme Court of Mauritius, The Conversation, Human Dignity Trust, United Nations