“10th June 2005 will always be a historic day,” declared the secretary of the political party Rezistans ek Alternativ, Ashok Subron, after judge Eddy Balancy had given his ruling. As from now, candidates for general elections will no longer be bound to mention their ethnic community on their nomination papers. Hence, the 11 candidates, members of the Rezistans ek Alternativ party, have been granted the right to stand in the forthcoming elections; however, they will not be eligible for a seat under the best loser system (BLS), which this party has always fought against.

This judgment follows the rejection of the candidatures of all members of Rezistans ek Alternativ after they refused to mention their community when applying as candidates as the Constitution requires. They said they considered themselves as simply Mauritians. As the electoral commission refused their candidatures, they decided to appeal to the Supreme Court for a ruling.

<B>Mauritian way of life</B>

In fact, they have always fought for the abolition of the BLS, which they find “obsolete” and favouring “institutionalised communalism.” The party sees in this victory the beginning of the end of the BLS. “(This judgment) has opened the way for the first time in history, for the creation of an anti-communal way of life where the citizen’s rights are upheld. We’ve made a huge step towards the eradication of communalism,” insists Ashok Subron.

Although it is stated in the Constitution that the Mauritian population should be regarded as comprising four different communities, Justice Balancy used a previous ruling by the former judge Seetulsingh in September 2000 to say that there were some anomalies in the Constitution, which should be dealt with. “Some 33 years after the Constitution was written, it cannot be ignored that a common way of living has gradually developed in Mauritius, beyond communal barriers”.

To justify his judgment, Justice Eddy Balancy relied on the fact that Mauritius has developed an “intrinsically Mauritian way of life which cuts across cultural barriers” as well as on the fact that such consequences of the constitution (that is the rejection of a candidature for general elections) could not be foreseen.

“The sanction of invalidity of nomination, hence of candidature, does appear to me to affect a fundamental right in a manner which is not reasonably justifiable in a democratic society: all the more so in view of the difficulties arising from the unrealistic criterion of ‘way of life’ contained in the first schedule of the Constitution,” concludes the judge.

The leaders of both main parties have commented that the judgment is of interest and could well lead to the abandonment of the BSL. Navin Ramgoolam said the judgment was to be considered if there was electoral reform while Paul Bérenger declared that the BSL would “die a natural death” with electoral reform. This gives way to much hope for a more modern Mauritius.