The country is poised for a long electoral campaign. The main parties have already started their vote-catching operation for the next general elections due by mid-September next year. The writ for the by-election in Port-Louis Maritime- Port-Louis Est has already been issued but everything points to the fact that these elections will not be organised.

Parliament should be dissolved before its due time to avoid such a by-election. The budget will most probably be presented in April before the dissolution. After MP Siddick Chady?s resignation last September, political leaders had always said that they would go straight to general elections.

The replacement of resigning Fisheries minister, Sylvio Michel, is another sore point. Prime minister, Paul Bérenger, has announced that he will wait for the return of his deputy, Pravind Jugnauth, next week to appoint the new minister.

Françoise Labelle has been named on several occasions but this has not yet been confirmed. The Prime minister however made it clear that he was much in favour of having a better representation of women in Cabinet.

PM Bérenger seems to favour Françoise Labelle as Fisheries minister. As president of the Southern African Development Countries (SADC), he doesn?t want Mauritius to lag behind other African countries regarding women?s representation.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader has seized the opportunity to castigate the government and send a barbed comment to the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM). At a rally in Goodlands, Navin Ramgoolam made it clear that he thought the MSM should insist that one of its members be appointed. He reminded the deputy PM that the tickets granted to Les Verts at the last election were taken from the MSM quota.