Mauritius went to polls on Thursday to elect its leader for the next five years, reported Reuters.
A total of 941,719 voters registered in the voter list headed to the polls in 526 polling stations throughout the country. The polling stations opened at 6 a.m. local time and were closed at 6 p.m. local time.
The votes will directly elect 62 members of the national assembly while the 8 additional members will be appointed to fulfill the 70 seats of the national assembly for a five-year term.
The votes are going to decide the future of Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth who was hand-picked for the job in 2017 when his father Anerood Jugnauth stepped down. The 57-year-old Jugnauth appealed the voters to judge him on his short time in office, pointing to his record on modernizing public infrastructure and economic reforms in the former British colony.
All the ruling party Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) and its main rivals the Labour Party and the Mauritian Militant Movement(MMM) campaigned on strengthening the country’s welfare state and on distributing wealth more equally in one of Africa’s most stable and prosperous economies.
Jugnauth heads the Morisian Alliance, Navin Ramgoolam, leads the center-left National Alliance and Paul Berenger, is going out alone with his Mauritian Militant Movement.
The opposition parties argued that the Jugnauth family’s rule has been marked by nepotism and corruption, appealed to voters to choose change.
Mauritius, the island of about 1.3 million people, is predominantly Hindu but has sizeable Christian and Muslim minorities. It comprises of four volcanic islands roughly 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) off the eastern coast of Africa. The country serves as a bridge between Africa and Asia and derives most of its revenues from a flourishing offshore financial sector and traditional economic pillars including tourism and textiles.
The provisional result of the election is expected to be out by Friday, Nov. 8, 2019.
