Against communalism of the best-loser system - Lalit Mauritius

Keep the best loser system, but kick out its communalism!
DECONSTRUCTING “COMMUNITY”
This article is written after three events:
(i) after the Supreme Court judgment of 8 th September, 2000 by Justice Seetulsingh in the
“reclassification case” against Lalit members and others, and
(ii) after the coming to power of a new government elected on 11 th September, 2000 with a
majority sufficient to change the Constitution, and
(iii) after, once again as in 1982 and 1991, the Electoral Supervisory Commission’s inability
to nominate the Best Losers without recourse to the Supreme Court.
The aim of the article is two-fold:
Firstly, to show how classification by community must go. The system must be changed
immediately because it is no longer viable. In particularly, it is no longer viable for both
ethical/political reasons and for practical/logical reasons. It is caduque and, if left in place, will
become increasingly dangerous.
Secondly, the article aims to appeal for a specific change in the electoral system: electoral
reform that maintains the “best loser” system but removes all need for communal classification
of candidates for general elections. The precise proposal, worked out by Lalit, comes at the end
of this article.
Ongoing opposition to communal classification
As everyone who follows current affairs already knows, LALIT has opposed classification by
community ever since we were founded in 1976 when we were still a tendency in the MMM.
When we stood for General Elections in 1983, 1987 and 2000, and because we were obliged by
the Constitution to choose one of the four communities defined in the First Schedule to the
Constitution in order for our Nomination Papers to be valid, we did the exercise by a public
drawing of lots. In 1983 and 1987 we had as legal advisers Guy d’Arifat and Madun Gujudhur
QC, respectively, to stand-by for any legal objections before the Supreme Court. But there were
not any objections.
This time, in the year 2000, 17 years after the first drawing of lots for “community”, an elector,
Mr. Parvez Carrimkhan did challenge 15 of our 20 candidates’ so-called “community” as we
filled it in on our Nomination Papers. He also challenged five Nouvo Lizour and six Tamil
Council candidates in the same affidavit. As lawyers, Lalit and Nouvo Lizour briefed Rex
Stephen, Sheila Keetaruth and Michel Ahnee. In the course of the hearing, Mr. Mohammed
withdrew his case against the Tamil Council members, who he accepted are members of the
“G...P…” as they had claimed they were.
It should be noted that Mr. Parvez Carrimkhan works as a messenger … for his advocate, Mr.
Yousouf Mohammed, who, in turn, was a long-term supporter of communal classification. So
the case is really that of Mr. Mohammed himself. However, it should be noted that the political
party that Mr. Mohammed is membre honorifique of and special advisor to – and this must be
said in its favour – has recently changed its name from Comité d’Action Musulmane to Comité
d’Action Mauricienne. This means even Mr. Mohammed has, himself, moved with the times on
the question of “re-classification”. He has thus stayed abreast changes Justice Seetulsingh
mentioned in his judgement: “Many [candidates] thought themselves to be citizens of the
Republic of Mauritius and belonging to the Mauritian Community.” And that: “It was then
believed [at the time of the writing of the Schedule to the Constitution] that all Mauritians
would be interested in preserving the best loser system. However with the passage of time, many
Mauritians have come to feel that it is not necessary that they should be divided into different