In less than two months the Mauritian electorate will have the difficult task of choosing its representatives for the Legislative Assembly. Before confering such responsibility on any one of the two alliances, the electorate has the huge responsibility of assessing the intellectual capacity and performance of both the government and the opposition. To enable our electorate to ponder on their choice and to take the right decision as to which alliance they will support in the general elections, it is vital to bring up some reflections on the challenges that our country will have to face in the coming years especially in the context of globalization and to see whether any one of the two alliances has the appropriate program to prepare our small island to meet the growing expectations of the people.

The electoral manifesto of both alliance should take into account the sevaral challenges that our country is facing and present one which is pragmatic and realizable. We are used to hearing the promises of our politicians to sell dreams to the population with the intention of fooling them and taking their votes. Such practices are very common especially during the electoral campaign but, we, as electorate must bear it in mind that whatever decisions we make should be in line with the economic and social development of our country, that is, the coming generation will not have to pay the consequences of our decision.

The five-year program should lay stress on the unemployment problem, reduce the deficit of the balance of trade, control the constant depreciation of the Mauritian rupee, bring sustainable economic growth, invest hugely in the education sector to set the knowledge hub in a starting position and finally relieve our elderly people from their daily suffering.

In any circumstances the alliance which will come forward with a better program, having a vision for the welfare of the country, showing the will power and interest to alleviate poverty in the country, will certainly have the support of the majority of the electorate and will no doubt form the new government.

People are free in a democratic country to choose the political alliance which will represent them either in the government or the opposition but, before doing so, the only question we should ponder upon is the criteria upon which we should base ourselves to determine the profile of the right candidate that we will vote for in the coming general elections on 3rd July 2005. Such an exercise will enable us to assess the potentiality of the candidates and see whether they are worth supporting.

The qualities we must look for are: trust, intellectual capacity, the aility to mingle with people, listen to their problems and find solutions, have good language skills to ensure they can defend the interest of their mandates. Whatever be our choice, we must ensure a well-balanced government and opposition in Parliament.

<B>By Pravin BAROSA</B>