Incumbent Mauritius PM Wins Five-Year election mandate

The ruling Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) has won more than half of the seats in parliament, securing incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth a five-year term, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Jugnauth’s coalition won four more seats in the final allocation to hold 42 of 70 parliamentary seats following the November 7 polls , securing an outright majority needed to form government alone, a victory that has reinforced the legitimacy of a leader who took over from his father without going through a vote.

In January 2017, he was chosen as the next Prime Minister by his father and leader of the coalition government, Anerood Jugnauth, following his resignation.

Sir Anerood was leader of the Alliance Lepep coalition and the longest-serving prime minister since Mauritius gained independence from Britain in 1968. Jugnauth, on the other hand, leads the Militant Socialist Movement party.

Some 723,660 voters, 76.845 of those eligible, turned out for the ballot, the report says. The turnout was 2% higher than the last election.

Opposition parties, argue that the Jugnauth family’s rule has been marked by nepotism and corruption.