|
1959 Mauritian General Election
General elections were held in Mauritius on 9 March 1959. The result was a victory for the Labour Party, which won 24 of the 40 seats. They were the first elections in Mauritius to be held with universal suffrage. Electoral system The Mauritius (Constitution) Order in Council 1958 provided for a Legislative Council with 40 members elected from single-member constituencies. Voters had to be aged 21 or over.''Report on the Mauritius Legislative Council General Elections, 1959'' Electoral Commission A total of 208,684 people were registered to vote, of which 122,310 were non-Muslim Indo-Mauritians, 32,866 were Muslim Indo-Mauritians, 50,381 were general population and 3,127 were Sino-Mauritians. Campaign A total of 159 candidates contested the elections, with all 40 constituencies having at least two candidates. Results Voter turnout was 91.3%, ranging from 83.6% in the Stanley constituency to 95.6% in Moka. Aftermath Following the elections, petitions were submitted to overt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga, and St. Brandon (Cargados Carajos shoals). The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion (a French overseas department), are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans and has an exclusive economic zone covering approximately . The 1502 Portuguese Cantino planisphere has led some historians to speculate that Arab sailors were the first to discover the uninhabited island around 975, naming it ''Dina Arobi''. Called ''Ilha do Cirne'' or ''Ilha do Cerne'' on early Portuguese maps, the island was visited by Portuguese sailors in 1507. A Dutch fleet, under the command of Admiral Van War ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labour Party (Mauritius)
The Labour Party (, PTr) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Mauritius. It is one of four main Mauritian political parties, along with the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM), the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD). The party is led by Navin Ramgoolam. It tends to be more popular amongst Indo-Mauritians, especially in more rural areas. Founded in 1936, the Labour Party is the oldest major political party in the Republic and has remained in power from 1948 to 1982, from 1995 to 2000 and from 2005 to 2014. From 1983 to 1990, it was part of a coalition government as a minority partner. As a member of the Labour Party- MMM alliance, it elected four members of parliament in the general election of 2014. History The Mauritius Labour Party was founded in 1936. Its founding principles mirrored those of the British Labour Party: to protect workers' rights and freedoms and support a higher wage rate with paid leave. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Suffrage
Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion of the young and non-citizens (among others). At the same time, some insist that more inclusion is needed before suffrage can be truly universal. Democratic theorists, especially those hoping to achieve more universal suffrage, support presumptive inclusion, where the legal system would protect the voting rights of all subjects unless the government can clearly prove that disenfranchisement is necessary. Universal full suffrage includes both the right to vote, also called active suffrage, and the right to be elected, also called passive suffrage. History In the first modern democracies, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, which almost always meant a minority of the male population. In some jurisdiction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauritians Of Chinese Origin
Mauritians of Chinese origin, also known as Sino-Mauritians or Chinese Mauritians, are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to China. Migration history Chinese migration from Sumatra to Mauritius Like members of other communities on the island, some of the earliest Chinese in Mauritius arrived involuntarily, having been " shanghaied" from Sumatra in the 1740s to work in Mauritius in a scheme hatched by the French admiral Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing; however, they soon went on strike to protest their kidnapping. The authorities responded by deporting them back to Sumatra. Chinese migration from China to Mauritius Late 1700s and early 1800s In the 1780s, thousands of voluntary Chinese migrants (estimated to be more than 3,000) set sail for Port Louis from Guangzhou on board British, French, and Danish ships; they found employment as blacksmiths, carpenters, cobblers, and tailors, and quickly formed a small Chinatown, the ''camp des Chinois'', in Port Louis. Ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauritian Legislative Council 1959
Mauritians (singular Mauritian; ; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a melting pot of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious peoples. Mauritian is made up of blended groups of people who come mainly from South Asian (notably Indian), African ( Mozambique, Madagascar and Zanzibar), European (White/European Mauritians), and Chinese descent, as well as those of a mixed background from any combination of the aforementioned ethnic groups. Creol-Mauritian is the blending of the different cultures; this is why it is complex to define Creol-Mauritian. History Mauritian Creoles trace their origins to the plantation owners and slaves who were brought to work the sugar fields. When slavery was abolished on 1 February 1835, an attempt was made to secure a cheap source of adaptable labour for intensive sugar plantations in Mauritius. Indentured labour began with Indian, Chinese, Malay, African and Mal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Forward Bloc
The Independent Forward Bloc (IFB) was a political party in Mauritius. History The Independent Forward Bloc (IFB) party was founded by Sookdeo Bissoondoyal on 13 April 1958. In the 1930s, the movement Jan Andolan had been founded by Sookdeo's elder brother Basdeo Bissoondoyal in order to educate the rural mass and was instrumental in the record high participation of working-class people at the 1948 Legislative Council general elections which were ground-breaking for being the first ever application of the principle of universal suffrage in Mauritius. To fully participate in the Jan Andolan's struggle for social justice Sookdeo Bissoondoyal resigned from the Civil Service in 1946 after 22 years of service as a school teacher. With the advent of the new political party IFB officially progressed the Jan Andolan's mission on the political front. IFB was an important partner in the coalition of 3 major parties that formed part of the Independence Party (Mauritius) which won the 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muslim Committee Of Action
The Muslim Committee of Action, also known as the ''Comité d'Action Musulman'' or ''Comité d'Action Mauricien'' (CAM) was a political party in Mauritius. History The CAM was founded by Sir Abdool Razack Mohamed in February 1959 in preparation for the March 1959 General Elections. In the early 1950s Abdool Razack Mohamed distanced himself from the Labour Party and became part of the Jules Koenig's Union Mauricienne (UM) which was founded in 1953. Koenig's UM claimed to be the roadblock which would prevent minorities from being swamped away by the Hindu majority. Thus Mohamed explained that minorities such as Muslims would be better protected from Hindu hegemony by Koenig's party, especially with the impending constitutional changes by the British administration. On the UM's platform Mohamed criticised the Labour Party and especially its emerging leader Dr. Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. Mohamed openly accused Ramgoolam of supporting Hindu nationalists. At a 1955 public meeting he war ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate
The Mauritian Social Democratic Party (PMSD, ), also known as the Mauritian Conservative Party, is a political party in Mauritius. Conservative and Francophilic, the PMSD is the fourth biggest political party in the National Assembly and currently forms part of the opposition. History The origins of the PMSD date back to the conservative ''Parti de L'Ordre''. Several decades later Jules Koenig resurrected the party in the form of Union Mauricienne from 1946 to 1953 before being re-branded to Ralliement Mauricien prior to the 1953 Legislative Council Elections. Koenig changed the party's name to Parti Mauricien after its defeat at the 1953 elections. Gaëtan Duval further modified the party's name to ''Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate'' (PMSD) after he succeeded to Jules Koenig as the party's leader. With its origins dating back to 1946 it is one of the oldest surviving parties in the country. Sir Gaetan Duval led the party from 1967 to 1995. The PMSD is known as the only sig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elections In Mauritius
Since 1967, Mauritius has experienced 13 free and fair democratic general elections to choose a government. The National Assembly (Mauritius), National Assembly has 70 members elected for a five-year term, 62 by plurality in 21 multi-member constituency, constituencies (plurinominal first-past-the-post with panachage) and, a maximum of, 8 additional members nominated by the Best Loser System. The government is formed by the party or group which controls a majority on the unicameral legislature. The president and vice-president are then elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term by the parliament. On a regional level, the country has village and district councils, and municipal elections every 6 years. Mauritius has a multi-party system which is mainly dominated by three parties namely Militant Socialist Movement, Militant Socialist Movement (MSM), the Labour Party (Mauritius), Labour Party and Mauritian Militant Movement, Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM). Out of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1959 In Mauritius
Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the vicinity of Earth's Moon, where it was intended to crash-land, but instead becomes the first spacecraft to go into heliocentric orbit. * January 3 ** Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. ** The southernmost island of the Maldives archipelago, Addu Atoll, declares its independence from the Kingdom of the Maldives, initiating the United Suvadive Republic. * January 4 ** In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana. ** Léopoldville riots: At least 49 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the ABAKO Party in Kinshasa, Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo. * January 6 – The International Maritime Organization is inaugurated. * January 7 – The United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
