by Bayano Valy – SANF 05 no 57
The calm and orderly fashion Mauritians have conducted the 2005 parliamentary elections sends a strong signal to G8 countries that democracy has become a staple diet in southern Africa, and by extension Africa.
The G8 is the group of the world’s richest and powerful nations, including Russia. The G8 leaders are scheduled to hold their annual summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, on 6-8 July to discuss world poverty, among others.
“It’s a good signal we send to G8 countries ahead of their meeting to have free and fair elections,” said outgoing Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Bérenger, at a final press conference on the eve of the island’s legislative elections that took place on 3 July.
“It’s a strong signal that in SADC countries, and Africa, democracy lives,” added Bérenger.
The elections in Mauritius are being observed by the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM), the African Union observer group, the SADC Parliamentary Forum, the region’s Electoral Commissions Forum, and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), as well as neighbouring islands.
Neither the Carter Centre of former United States President Jimmy Carter nor the European Union observer group, which normally insist on sending teams to regional countries such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe, came to Mauritius.
The role of international observer groups sending teams to the region has been questioned strongly by the SADC member countries. Perhaps to counter this, the member countries adopted the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections at the annual summit in Grand Baie, Mauritius in August 2004.
It is this electoral blueprint that regional countries holding elections have subsequently been using, starting in Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
However, the guidelines were effectively tested in Zimbabwe because the other countries did not have sufficient time to introduce changes to their electoral legislation to align them with SADC’s own.
Mauritius will thus be the second country where the principles and guidelines are used.
The idea in Grand Baie was that henceforth the region should monitor itself, and this was strongly put during the Zimbabwean elections by then South African Minerals and Energy Minister, and now Deputy President, Pumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who said that “I think the SADC countries know what they are doing, and they don’t need anybody chaperoning them on how to conduct elections.”
Reacting to reports that regional countries should allow international observers to lend credibility to their elections, she said that “the regional governments know what they are doing.”
Mauritius has been holding elections since independence from Britain in 1968, and the process has been peaceful.
The region’s observer teams have all agreed that so far the electoral process has been calm and peaceful with minor incidents that do not undermine the poll.
The main SADC observer mission, the SEOM, issued a statement saying that the process has been peaceful and calm.
Ajay Bramdeo, the mission leader and South African ambassador to Mauritius, sent congratulations to Mauritians “for the orderly behaviour displayed thus far during the electoral process.”
“This is a true demonstration of the level of maturity of democracy in Mauritius and in southern Africa in particular and Africa in general,” he said.
Bramdeo added that the mission had met with the main stakeholders in the process, including groups of civil society and it is upon the findings that it could say there was a high level of democratic maturity; that there was a general confidence in electoral management bodies and respect for the rule of law governing the holding of elections.
“This, in SADC’s view, bodes well for nurturing a culture that tolerates multipartyism as an essential building block for democracy,” he said.
This observation was also echoed by the ECF, which said that its group “assumed that the elections will uphold the reputation of Mauritius as a mature democracy.” (SARDC)
