A lot of people were pleased to hear that candidates for general elections no longer had to state their ethnic identity on their registration forms. This followed a ruling by justice Eddy Balancy after members of the “Rezistans ek Alternativ” political party refused to state their ethnic identity in June. Unfortunately, the full bench of the Supreme Court quashed this decision last week.

After justice Balancy gave his ruling in June, the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) asked the Supreme Court to state clearly what would happen if someone eligible for the best loser system had not stated his/her ethnic identity on his/her form.

Paragraph 3 of the first schedule of the Constitution states that all candidates must declare to which community they belong – Hindu, Muslim, Chinese or general population. Chief justice Ariranga Pillay and justices Keshoe Parsad Matadeen and Paul Lam Shang Leen – examined the issue and stated that the Balancy ruling is not correct and that they believe the declaration of community is at the core of the best loser system.

<B>Mandatory part of the procedure</B>

To make sure the four communities are fairly and adequately represented in Parliament, the choice of the eight additional MPs has to go through the declaration of community. The judges believe that the number of elected MPs in each community has to be known so as to decide to which community the additional seats must be allocated. As from now, the declaration of ethnicity is a mandatory part of the procedure. If candidates do not declare it, the returning officers will cancel their registration.

Even if an eligible candidate does not accept the best loser system (and he can refuse it), he still has to specify his/her community on the registration form, as required by the law.

The judges’ point is that the absence of declaration would mean, “The whole exercise will be stultified, thereby rendering nugatory the allocation of the eight additional seats.” In fact, to abolish the notion of communalism in the Constitution, the best loser system has to be reviewed. The ball is now in the government’s court. It must decide whether it is going to revamp the electoral system and remove any ethnic notion from the Constitution.