Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 24, 2, May 2006 | ^ Taylor 6.

Franc^Croup

Women's Legislative Representation in

Mauritius: 'A Grave Democratic Deficit'
Mi Yung Yoon and Sheila Bunwaree

Introduction
The 1995 United Nations Development Programme's Human Development
Report (41) says, "Political space belongs to all citizens, but men monopolise it".
Mauritius has been no exception. Although it boasts that it is the most democratic
country in the general area of sub-Saharan Africa, its female political representa-
tion has been one of the lowest in that region, and the lowest in the Southern Afri-
can Development Community (SADC). Women have been given the right to vote
and the right to stand for election since 1956, but they have remained largely in-
visible in the political sphere. Although the election on July 3, 2005 brought a
sharp increase of women in its 70-seat parliament from four (5.7 per cent) to
twelve (17.1 per cent), its female legislative representation is still far short of the
30 per cent target stipulated in the Declaration on Gender and Development,
adopted by SADC heads of government in Blantyre, Malawi in 1997.

The Sachs Commission's report on constitutional and electoral reform in Mauri-

tius describes women's low representation in Mauritian politics as displaying "a
grave democratic deficit" (2001/2002:26).' If so, what can explain this grave def-
icit? Mauritius ratified the Declaration on Gender and Development. But given
women's persistent underrepresentation in the Mauritian legislature and despite
the progress made recently, it may be difficult, if not impossible, for the country
to accomplish the 30 per cent target without introducing special electoral mecha-
nisms intended for a significant increase of women in parliament because other
barriers to female legislative representation take a longer time to change.

Many studies of women and politics suggest that proportional representation sys-
tems favour women's entry into parliament over the first-past-the-post system
Mauritius has employed.^ Although we agree, the cases of Mozambique,
Rwanda, and South Africa, which use proportional representation, and where
women's parliamentary representation has already exceeded the 30 per cent goal,
show that proportional representation alone cannot ensure a significant boost of
women in the legislature.^ In the cases of Mozambique and South Africa, it is the
voluntary party quotas of the Frente de Liberta^ao de Mogambique (FRELIMO)
and the African National Congress (ANC), the dominant political parties in Mo-
zambique and in South Africa respectively, that brought about a sharp increase of

ISSN 0258-9001 print /ISSN 1469-9397 online/06/020229-19 © 2006 Journal of Contemporary African Studies
DOI: 10.1080/02589000600769983
230 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

women in the legislature.

Specifically, FRELIMO has a 30 per cent and the ANC a 33.3 per cent quota of
women on their candidate lists. The gender quotas of these parties also require
that a woman occupy every third place on their party lists. As a result, women ac-
count for more than 30 per cent of members of parliament (MPs) elected by these
parties. Other political parties in Mozambique and South Africa have elected
much smaller proportions of women. In the case of Rwanda, female legislative
representation would be substantially lower than the current 48.8 per cent without
the constitutionally legislated quota, which reserves 24 of 80 legislative seats for
women."* In fact, except for Seychelles, all the African countries whose percent-
age of women in parliament exceeds at least 20 per cent use various forms of
quotas for women.^
The above evidence implies that countries such as Mauritius, experiencing grave
underrepresentation of women in parliament, require gender quotas because a
'women friendly' electoral system such as proportional representation can by it-
self only increase women's entry into parliament in a limited way. But is Mauri-
tius likely to adopt gender quotas in the foreseeable future?
The purpose of this study is to examine the factors hindering women's legislative
representation and so understand the continued gender gap in Mauritian politics
and the likelihood of Mauritius adopting quotas for women. To explore the prob-
ability of quotas, we interviewed several present and past female MPs and sur-
veyed the views reported in the Mauritian press.

A Brief Historical Overview of the Country

Mauritius, which consists of the island of Mauritius and three dependencies
(Rodrigues, St Brandon Island, and Agalega Island), is home to 1.2 million peo-
ple. It is a multiracial country that consists exclusively of the descendants of
slaves and immigrants (Eriksen 1994). Mauritius was uninhabited before the ar-
rival of Europeans and has no indigenous population. The first Europeans to dis-
cover Mauritius were the Portuguese, who did not stay. The Dutch came next and
took possession of the country from 1598 to 1710. The French followed the
Dutch by establishing political control of Mauritius in 1715, but were replaced by
the British in 1810. Mauritius gained independence from the British in 1968 as a
constitutional monarchy in which the Governor-General represented the British
monarch. It became a republic in 1992.
Sugar had been the major source of export earnings until the country began to di-
versify its economy in the 1970s. The Dutch East India Company settlement, cre-
ated in 1638, first introduced sugar cane to Mauritius (Meisenhelder 1997:279).
The French then developed and expanded sugar cultivation. Slaves were im-
ported from Madagascar and mainland Africa to work on the plantations. When
slavery was abolished in 1835, indentured labourers were imported from several
parts of India (Tinker 1974). As a result of this complex human migration.
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 231

Mauritius became an ethnically diverse country. Today, Hindu descendants of

indentured labourers make up 52 per cent of the total population; the general
population consisting of the Creole descendants of African slaves and the
Franco-Mauritian whites represents about 28 per cent of the total; the Muslims,
whose ancestors came from India before the partition, account for about 17 per
cent (Carroll and Carroll 2000:122); and the Chinese, whose ancestors emigrated
to Mauritius as traders, constitute about 3 per cent (Brautigam 1997:48).

Women in Mauritian Colonial History

The literature of Mauritian history rarely discusses women and little has been
known about their roles. A few sources, however, suggest that the persistent in-
visibility of women in post-independence Mauritian politics can be traced to the
period of colonial rule, when women's roles were mostly limited to reproduction
and domesticity. They were completely absent from the colonial govemment.
Thus, the contemporary exclusion of women from the public sphere can be inter-
preted as a legacy of gendered Mauritian colonial history. Because the island was
unpopulated when it was discovered, peopling it was a necessity for the colonial
powers. The early European immigrants in Mauritius, however, were mostly
men, and there was a severe shortage of women. To narrow the gender imbalance
and to facilitate biological reproduction, the French brought French women and
girls to Mauritius in the eighteenth century (Vaughan 2005:28).
The primary role of married white women on the island was household mainte-
nance, but they also managed business enterprises and slaves. Their involvement
in the management of wealth, however, was frowned upon by some people be-
cause it was deemed unfeminine {ibid:l44-5). The disproportional sex ratio also
encouraged interracial sexual relations, and some female slaves gave birth to
their masters' children {ibid:235). The primary role played by the Indian women
resembled that of the European women, although their experience was unique.
According to Carter (1996:23), the first indentured Indian women were brought
to Mauritius in the 1830s and were engaged primarily as domestic servants. At
first, almost all the Indian migrants were men, but the govemment sex quotas
gradually increased the sex ratio by bringing more Indian women to Mauritius.
Many single women migrated for marriage to men already in Mauritius, while
married women came with their husbands and children (Benedict 1965:18). In-
dian women performed important economic roles: "Off the estates, women culti-
vated market gardens, reared animals, worked as domestic servants and engaged
in petty trade" and on estates, they were incorporated into the labour force, al-
though they remained "easily dismissed and poorly paid" (Carter 1996:126).
However, Carter (1996:58) states that from the beginning "women's value for the
colony lay not in their labour power but in their domestic roles as wives and
mothers". These domestic roles, in fact, were emphasised to all women through-
out the colonial history of Mauritius, particularly by the kind of colonial educa-
tion that girls received. According to Pridham (1856) and Prithipaul (1976), the
232 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

colonial school curriculum socialised them into subjects generally regarded as

'feminine' and oriented them towards domestic tasks. Although education has
been expanded and made free during the post-colonial period, it remains
gendered. Girls continue to be socialised toward 'feminine subjects', although
not to the same extent as before.

Political System
Since its independence, Mauritius has maintained multiparty parliamentary de-
mocracy. The head of state is the president, who is appointed by a simple major-
ity of the National Assembly for a five-year term. The president replaced the
British monarch as the head of state when the country became a republic in 1992.
On the recommendation of the prime minister, he appoints the Council of Minis-
ters (cabinet) headed by the prime minister, who has the executive power. Minis-
ters are elected members of the National Assembly and are responsible to the
parliament.

The unicameral national legislature is made up of 62 members directly elected

every five years based on the block-vote system and eight non-elected additional
members selected by the best-loser system, which was created to ensure a fair
representation of under-represented ethnic communities in the direct elections.*
The block-vote system is a first-past-the-post mechanism in multimember con-
stituencies. Theoretically, in this system, people vote for individual candidates
regardless of their party affiliations (Reynolds and Reilly 1997:36). To elect 62
members of the National Assembly, the country is divided into 20 constituencies,
with each electing three members, and one (the island of Rodrigues) electing two
members. Voters have three votes in a single ballot except on Rodrigues, where
they have two votes in a single ballot. Voters can cast their votes for more than
one candidate. The three candidates who receive the largest number of votes se-
cure election in each constituency. In the case of Rodrigues, the two candidates
with the largest number of votes are elected.

Voting records in Mauritius show that the vast majority of voters usually vote for
three candidates from the same alliance, or select two candidates from one alli-
ance and one from the other. Thus, as Chu (2005) notes, "the seat outcome in
each constituency has either been 3-0 or 2-1". This tendency was repeated in the
2005 election. All three seats went to one of the two alliances in 13 out of 20 con-
stituencies, and three seats are divided between the two alliances in seven constit-
uencies. In Mauritius, political parties field candidates to satisfy the 'broadly
acceptable syndrome' (in line with the ethnic and caste profile of the constitu-
ency), but they are not made up of any particular ethnic group except for a few
that have appeared in recent years. Most of them have preferred to mobilise di-
verse ethnic groups and have fielded candidates from a range of ethnic and other
subdivisions such as caste, to draw wider popular support.
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 233

The first-past-the-post system in three-member constituencies, as the Sachs Com-

mission (2001/2002:13) points out, has frequently produced parliamentary repre-
sentation that has not reflected the share of the votes obtained by the parties and
alliances. Despite gaining a substantial share of the votes, the opposition is some-
times completely or nearly eliminated. For example, in the 1982 and the 1995
elections, the opposition gained no seat in parliament despite the fact that it
gained about 35 per cent of the popular vote in each of these elections. In the
2000 election, while the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) and its coali-
tion partners, the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM) and the Parti
Mauricien Social Democrate (PMSD), won 54 seats, the Mauritius Labour Party
dominant alliance won six (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2004). The 2005 election,
however, produced quite different results. Whereas the incumbent
MMM-MSM-PMSD alliance won 22 seats, the Alliance Sociale dominated by
the Labour Party won 38 (Electoral Institute of Southem Africa (EISA) 2005).
According to Reynolds and Reilly (1997:36), the above disproportionality occurs
when "voters cast all their votes for the candidates of a single party", which is of-
ten the case in block-vote electoral systems.

The constitution of Mauritius recognises the following four communities: Hin-

dus, Muslims, Si no-Mauritians, and the general population. Candidates seeking a
parliamentary seat must declare on their nomination papers whieh of these four
communities they belong to.

Following a general election, the Electoral Supervisory Commission

looks at the ethnic background of the 62 elected members and ascertains
how many come from each of the four recognised communities. Should
the proportion of elected members be less than that community's percent-
age of the population, best losers (candidates who stood for election for
recognised parties but lost) make up the difference. (Srebrnik 2002:278)

For this purpose, the 1972 census is used, as the last one in which the population
was required to declare its communal background (Mathur 1997:63).^ Interest-
ingly though, for the first time in post-independence Mauritian politics, candi-
dates were allowed to stand for elections without having to declare their ethnic
backgrounds in 2005. This was made possible after a small, newly bom left-lean-
ing political party, Resistans ek Altemativ, had won its court case against the
Electoral Supervisory Commission that had debarred its candidates from register-
ing because they had refused to declare their ethnic affiliations. Supreme Court
Justice Eddy Balancy pronounced in favour of the party by allowing its candi-
dates not to have to declare their ethnicities on their nomination papers, if they so
wished. This became a landmark in the political history of Mauritius, and may be
the beginning of the end of the institutionalised form of communalism that the
best-loser system represents.

Mauritius is known as the most democratic and stable country in Africa. The
Freedom House survey has continually labelled Mauritius "free" except for the
234 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

period 1978-1981, descrihed as "partly free".^ Although ethnic violence has heen
a prohlem at times, its severity has never developed to anything like the level of
hostilities experienced in Rwanda, Burundi, and Sudan, where ethnicity was one
ofthe underlying causes of conflict. Eriksen (1994) attributes the political stabil-
ity in Mauritius to the precarious balance hetween ethnic group interests through
the hest-loser system.^ Similarly, Brautigam (1997) and Carroll and Carroll
(2000) argue that the inclusion of all the major ethnic communities in the politi-
cal process and representation has prevented further fragmentation and polaris-
ation and has therefore played an important role in consolidating democracy.

Carroll and Carroll (2000:139), however, predict that the prohahility of continu-
ous success of Mauritius will hinge on its institutional and procedural capacity to
incorporate black Creoles into the mainstream of Mauritian society. The econom-
ically marginalised black Creoles, who lack economic means to participate fully
in the democratic processes, have heen left out from the Mauritian politics of in-
clusion. Their continuing marginality if unheeded and untreated may challenge
the stability of the country, as was evidenced by the riots of 1999 (Carroll and
Carroll 2000). Although these riots were attrihuted to the 'malaise Creole' (the
deplorable conditions in which the Creoles live), the growing neo-liheralism,
whieh has increasingly polarised and fractured Mauritian society hy intersecting
class, ethnicity, and gender, was also hlamed as an indirect cause. Specifically,
the Creoles have heen disproportionately represented in the rapidly expanding
working class.

Women's Political Representation over Time

The first legislative election was held under British rule in January 1886, after
Mauritius had obtained a legislative council in 1885. However, the right to vote
was reserved for those men who met high property qualifications. They were
mostly whites or small members of the non-white urban middle class. Suffrage
was extended to women in 1947, hut only to those who could pass the literacy
test. Not until 1956 did the British government concede universal adult suffrage
to Mauritius. Thereafter, all men and women over the age of 21 had the right to
vote. The age limit was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1976.

According to Inter-Parliamentary Union data (1995:178), no women had entered

parliament until three women were elected to the National Assembly in 1976.
Moreover, as Table 1 shows, the number of female MPs has never exceeded six
until recently. Women have also heen underrepresented in the 25-memher cahi-
net. For example, the previous cabinet, led by the former Prime Minister Paul
Berenger, had only two female ministers: Marie Arianne Navarre-Marie for the
Ministry for Women's Rights, Child Development and Family Welfare, and
Leela Devi Dookhun for the Ministry of Arts and Culture. The present cabinet,
led by Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam, also has no more than two
women ministers: Sheila Bappoo, the Minister of Social Security, and Indira
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 235

Seeburn, the Minister of Women's Rights, Child Development and Family Wel-
fare.

Table 1: Distribution of National Assembly Seats by Gender, 1967-2005

Year Male Female Best Loser Total % of Women

1967 62 0 8 70 0.0

1976 59 3 8 70 4.3

1982 59 3 4 66 4.5

1983 60 2 8 70 2.9

1987 58 4 8 70 5.7

1991 60 2 4 66 3.0

1995 56 6 4 66 9.1

2000 58 4 8 70 5.7

2005 50 12 8 70 17.1

Sources: Inter-Parliamentary Union (1995:178), 1999, 2004); Dyer and Houbert (1995/1996:363);
Mathur (1997:64)

Women's poor representation in the cabinet can, to some extent, be attributed to

the influence of ethnic politics on appointments. For example, at the 2003 SADC
summit in Angola, the heads of member states decided to appoint women parlia-
mentarians as ministers whenever opportunities, such as reshuffling of cabinets,
arose. Yet the Mauritian government appointed another male minister when there
was a reshuffling in 2004; it appointed a Tamil MP as a minister, giving prece-
dence to ethnicity rather than gender.'" His appointment was one of many at-
tempts in Mauritian politics at balancing communal and ethnic interests through
political representation. Records suggest that women parliamentarians have oc-
cupied the welfare and gender sectors, traditionally perceived as female areas,
while male parliamentarians have always headed key ministries such as the Min-
istry of Finance or the Ministry of Economic Development (Thacoor-Sidaya
1998:62, Kethusegile et al 2000:62). The Ministry for Women's Rights, Child
Development and Family Welfare, which was set up by the short-lived
MMM-Parti Socialiste Mauricien govemment in 1982 to eradicate gender dis-
crimination and to promote women's causes, has always been headed by a
woman. Other ministries occasionally headed by female MPs include the Minis-
try of Social Security and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
236 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

Factors Hindering Women's Legisiative Representation

Low Level of Women's Activism Within Political Parties
According to Caul (1999:83), women's activity within parties is one of the most
significant factors encouraging female legislative representation because it not
only increases women's power in the party but also creates a pool of politically
experienced women. Women's party activism, especially at the highest levels.
Caul (1999:94) continues, is likely to trigger gender quota rules conducive to in-
creasing women's representation in parliament. In Mauritius, women's leader-
ship role within parties is mainly limited to a women's wing, or what is known as
commission femme or women's league, which is the most that political parties
have. Few women occupy high-level decision-making positions, let alone leader-
ship positions, within parties. Among the political parties that contested the 2000
election, only the Rassemblement pour la Reforme was led by a woman. Sheila
Bappoo — but her party was about to dissolve. In fact. Sheila Bappoo presented
herself as a candidate under the banner of the Labour Party, with which her own
party integrated soon after the 2000 election. She then became the president of
the women's league ofthe Labour Party. Among the parties that competed in the
2005 election, only Parti de la Majorite, created as a women's political party by
Paula Atchia in March 2005 to address women's severe underrepresentation in
politics," was led by a woman. This party fielded four female candidates for the
election and no male candidates.

A task force set up by the Ministry for Women's Rights, Child Development and
Family Welfare in 2001 stressed the need to make changes in the party structure
and procedure to enhance women's participation in leadership positions within
parties. So far, only the Labour Party has set up a policy to include more women
in its leadership positions. Specifically, it changed its constitution to ensure at
least 30 per cent female representation within its executive committee, the high-
est decision-making organ of the party.

Electoral System and Nomination of Candidates

As mentioned earlier, the Mauritian electoral system has two unique features: the
division of the country into 20 constituencies where voters cast three votes, and
one where they cast two; and the best-loser system (Sachs et al 2001/2002:13).
The appointment of the best losers is done by the Electoral Supervisory Commis-
sion on the basis of a mechanism prescribed under Section 5 of the First Schedule
of the Constitution, and in a manner that ensures adequate representation of the
officially recognised ethnic groups without changing the balance of forces be-
tween the parties as obtained through direct suffrage (Darga 2004).

Although the first-past-the-post system practised in Mauritius is more favourable

to women than the single-member plurality system used in such African coun-
tries as Botswana, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Swaziland and
Zambia, the maximum number of candidates each party can field for each
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 237

constituency is only three. Nomination, therefore, results from competition

and negotiation in each party. Women are often excluded largely because of their
severe underrepresentation in decision-making positions within parties, which
substantially limits their bargaining power. Sachs et al (2001/2002:27), who
identify the discriminatory nomination practice of political parties as one of the
causes of women's underrepresentation in Mauritian politics, notes: "There is
nothing in the Constitution or the law which prevents political parties from
choosing women in greater numbers to be candidates and part of the government.
In practice, however, the manner in which candidates are chosen appears heavily
to discriminate against women".

The best-loser system has also been criticised for sidelining female representa-
tion, for communal representation in this case. The evidence, however, suggests
that it can also benefit women. Women have been elected as best losers provided
they belong to an underrepresented minority ethnic group. Among examples are
Radha Poonoosamy, Marie France Roussety, and Daniele Perrier, who were
elected in 1976, 1982, and 2005 respectively.

The electoral system, which has produced a large degree of disproportionality has
been challenged by most major parties, particularly by the opposition, but
women's underrepresentation in politics has hardly received any attention. It was
the Sachs Commission that brought this issue into the national spotlight. For elec-
toral reform in Mauritius, the Sachs Commission recommends a mixed system of
block vote and proportional representation by list. Specifically, it suggests that
the Constitution be amended to elect 30 additional members by a list propor-
tional-system while keeping the current block vote system to elect 62 members
{ibid:26). Political parties claiming legislative seats under proportional represen-
tation, the Commission proposes, should have received more than 10 per cent of
the popular vote {ibid:\9). To improve female legislative representation, the
commission listed the following options:

(i) If the Indian approach is to be followed, then a requirement could be

made that in each bloc of three candidates nominated in the 20 constitu-
encies, at least one be a woman and one be a man;

(ii) If the South African experience is to be a guide, the parties could be re-
quired to rank their candidates on the proportional representation lists in
such a sequence that at least every third candidate be a woman and every
third a man. Since women, like men, share all the characteristics of the
nation, the parties could factor in appropriate balancing of elements other
than gender when nominating women candidates;

(iii) If public funding of political parties is to be introduced, the allocation of

funds could be made dependent in significant part on the extent to which
women are put forward as candidates and women obtain seats. {ibid\29)
238 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

These recommendations, if implemented, will significantly increase women's

parliamentary representation.

Coalition Politics
Mauritian elections, except the one in 1976, have always been a race between
two coalitions of parties.'^ Coalitions, by stiffening the competition for a ticket,
have been tough on both men and women, but particularly women. They are usu-
ally pushed to the fringes when men struggle to keep their own space. Male lead-
ers often succumb to the pressure of other male partners scrambling for a ticket.
As a result, even well-qualified women sometimes cannot get in. For example,
for the 2005 election, the Alliance Sociale, which consists of the Labour Party,
the Parti Mauricien Xavier Duval (PMXD), the Mouvement Militant Socialiste
Mauricien, the Mouvement Republicain, and Les Verts, fielded 60 candidates,
only six of them were women. The Labour Party and PMXD were the only par-
ties within the Alliance with women candidates. The MMM-MSM-PMSD alli-
ance also had 60 candidates but 10 only were women. Six of them were from the
MSM. The latter was perhaps able to field more women because some important
male MSM figures defected to the Alliance Sociale. The loss of popularity and
the weakening of the party meant fewer men vying for a party ticket, to the ad-
vantage of women.
Since alliances have dominated Mauritian election outcomes and voters usually
select three or two candidates from the same alliance, female legislative represen-
tation will improve substantially if alliances field a significant number of women.
As Chu (2005) has stated, gender representation in parliament would change if
each major alliance fielded one female candidate in each constituency. No alli-
ance, however, made a firm commitment to increase their female candidates for
the 2005 election, although each of them had argued for better political represen-
tation of women. As elaborated above, the two major alliances together fielded
only 16 women!

Patriarchal Culture
Norris and Inglehart (2001), who examined whether attitudes toward women as
political leaders affect women's political empowerment, conclude that culture
does matter. It boosts or limits women's opportunities to enter into politics by in-
fluencing social attitudes toward their roles (Yoon 2004:450). Fewer women are
in politics in male-dominant cultures because the stereotypical roles of women
are mother and wife. Politics is not considered a female domain. In such cultures,
women are reluctant to run for elective offices. Even if they stand for elections,
voters do not vote for them. Mauritius is a patriarchal society, where people are
expected to play their traditional gender roles. Conservative religious teachings
of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity (mainly Roman Catholicism), the three ma-
jor religions in Mauritius, have contributed to perpetuating patriarchal cultural at-
titudes toward women.
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 239

The 2005 election results, however, hint that the cultures that have discriminated
against women's political role may be slowly changing. Both the number of
women who stood for election, and the number of women elected, increased sub-
stantially.'^ In addition, a few women such as Marie Arianne Navarre and
Kalyanee Virahsawmy came out first, and others, Marie Grenade and Sheila
Bappoo, came out second in their constituencies. In Constituency 16 (Vacoas and
Floreal), two of the three elected are women (Frangoise Labelle from the
MSM-MMM-PMSD alliance, and Sheila Bappoo from the Alliance Sociale).'"*
These cases suggest that voters may be favourable toward well-qualified and ex-
perienced women. However, to be elected, women still need to be placed in con-
stituencies where their parties have strong influence.'^

Lack of Resources
Women in Mauritius, as in other African countries, lack funds mainly because of
their low income. Although the number of women in the labour force has in-
creased over the years, women are concentrated in low-paid and low-skilled jobs
(AUadin 1993:79; Gunganah et al 1997:20; Thacoor-Sidaya 1998:61). In some
sectors, they are also underpaid compared with men who do the same type of
work. Women may legally own land and businesses, but lack collaterals when
they seek capital from financial institutions (Kethusegile et al 2000:58). In Mau-
ritius, candidates pay a nominal fee (less than $10) to the Electoral Supervisory
Commission to stand for an election. However, because there is no public fund-
ing for individual candidates' campaign expenditures, people must finance their
campaigns themselves. They also have to contribute to common campaign ex-
penses of their parties, for collective campaign rallies and advertisements. These
common expenses are divided among the candidates.'^ Fundraising is not com-
mon in Mauritius, and campaign funds usually come from candidates' personal
resources, family members, and 'well wishers' (Bunwaree and Kasenally 2005).
Running for elective offices therefore is a very costly venture for both men and
women, but the resource barrier is more pronounced for women. This gender bar-
rier could be eased if there were an official policy of state funding of political
parties, and if state funding were made conditional on the extent to which women
are presented as candidates for the elections (Bunwaree 2005a, 2005b).

Education
Mauritius has offered free education at all levels since 1976. The government
continued to offer free education even in the 1980s, when the country was under-
going the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank, by resisting the
requirement to abolish it. As a result, girls' education improved substantially.
There is no gender gap at the primary and secondary level, but there still is one at
the tertiary level, from which most politicians are drawn (Gunganah et al
1997:61; Thacoor-Sidaya 1998:63). There has also been unequal access to tech-
nical and scientific skills as well as gender stereotyping in educational materials
240 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

(Bunwaree 2003). This biased educational system, Bunwaree (1997) states, has
contributed to a stratified labour market in which women are shunted to low-paid
occupations. To elaborate, Virahsawmy (2003) notes:

Women occupy only 5 per cent of senior positions in the top 100 compa-
nies. This figure may be six times higher in the public sector, where
women are doing quite well at the senior level as permanent secretaries
and principal assistant secretaries, but women still dominate in the cleri-
cal and factory occupations. According to a survey done by the newly
created Sex Discrimination Division, there are only 79 women compared
to 767 men on 43 Boards of Parastatal and Local Authorities. There is not
a single woman who is chairperson on these Boards.

Today, most well-educated and competent women are found in the public sector
in Mauritius. Mauritian law, however, mandates that people in the public sector
do not seek elective offices unless they resign from their positions. This stipula-
tion makes some women in the public sector reluctant to pursue a political career,
thus decreasing the pool of qualified women available to participate in politics.

Is Mauritius Likeiy to Adopt Gender Quotas?

Gender quotas have been used to correct gender imbalances in politics, although
their implementation has remained controversial. Critics question whether gender
quotas are consistent with the meaning of democracy because, in Gray's
(2003:55) terms, they "stifle autonomous political expression and identity".
However, advocates such as Mazumdar (1997:19) and Lowe-Moma (2004) argue
that institutionalised measures are necessary to counter institutionalised gender
inequalities in politics. As intended, gender quotas have improved women's leg-
islative representation, and have changed the composition of the legislatures
throughout the world. For example, the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Indian
Constitution, enacted unanimously in 1992, have substantially increased
women's representation in local governments by securing 33 per cent of seats for
women. The implementation of Argentine gender quota law, which requires that
at least 30 per cent of the candidates on each party list be women, has brought
substantially more women to the Argentine Chamber (Jones 1996). Women oc-
cupy more than a third of parliamentary seats in Sweden (45.3 per cent), Norway
(38.2 per cent), Finland (37.5 per cent), and Denmark (36.9 per cent) mainly be-
cause of the mandatory party quotas those countries employ in conjunction with
proportional representation by list.'^ Multimember constituency systems can im-
plement quotas more easily than single-member ones because their political par-
ties can field both men and women and not worry about having to sacrifice a
man's space in order to accommodate a woman.

Mauritius has been adept in its politics of recognition and representation, but gen-
der is still not a clear category of representation (Bunwaree 2004). Although
women form more than half of the population and the electorate, no policy has
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 241

been formulated to ensure their representation in the legislature. The politics of

recognition and representation seems to be gender-blind in Mauritius. Accommo-
dation and management of diversity have focused on ethnicity, not on gender.
The severe underrepresentation of women in politics, however, has attracted the
attention of the Ministry for Women's Rights, Child Development and Family
Welfare. The White Paper on Women in Development of 1995, which spells out
new policies for the advancement of women, recommends party quotas for fe-
male candidates. The National Gender Action Plan of 2000 specifically proposes
that political parties reserve 30 per cent of candidate seats for women for Na-
tional Assembly and municipal and village council elections. The ministry also
selected 'women and political empowerment' as the theme for the celebration of
the International Women's Day on March 8, 2005. Thus far, though, it has not
taken any of the steps it proposed to enhance women's political representation,
and has limited itself to raising awareness on the need to improve women's polit-
ical representation. This may be because satisfying women's basic needs (for ex-
ample, combating domestic violence, promoting entrepreneurship, alleviating
poverty) has taken priority over fostering their political life.

Some female MPs we interviewed argue for quotas while others argue against
them, anticipating negative consequences. Quotas, say the opponents, will create
a second class of parliamentarians, reducing female legislators brought in by
them to mere tokens. According to Fran^oise Labelle, quotas could actually con-
tribute to male superiority by suggesting that women cannot win elections on
their own merits. The opponents wish to see more women in politics without
quotas. Yet proponents argue that realistically it is impossible for the country to
meet the 30 per cent SADC target without quotas for women. Labelle, who ini-
tially opposed gender quotas on the basis of her reasoning above, admits that
quotas for women could help well-qualified women who otherwise cannot get a
ticket.

Diverse views on this issue have also been reported in the press. While a number
of people such as Lindsey Collen, the president of Lalit (a political party with a
left ideology), Shireen Aummeeruddy-Cziffra, a former Attorney-General and
now the Ombudsperson for children, and the current Minister of Social Security,
Sheila Bappoo are not in favour of quotas on grounds of discrimination
(L'Express, March 2, 16, 29, 2004), others such as columnist Shenaz Patel favour
them. Patel (2004) states, "In a number of fields, especially in politics, the situa-
tion will not evolve by itself. Men will simply not let go of their power that they
have taken so much care to create and lock up for themselves. They [women]
should be given a helping hand". By "a helping hand", she means the introduc-
tion of quotas.

Two types of electoral gender quotas have been practised among the SADC
member countries: the system of reserved seats established by national legisla-
tion, and quotas voluntarily established by political parties. While Rwanda, Tan-
zania, and Uganda have reserved seats for women, Mozambique, Namibia, and
242 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

South Africa have gender quotas established by political parties (Yoon

2004:462). The advocates of gender quotas we interviewed favour mandatory
party quotas that aim to influence the candidature and oppose the reserved seats
mechanisms. Their rationale is that women should go through the competitive
election process to claim some legitimacy. However, they differ on how compul-
sory party quotas for candidature should be implemented. A few argue that pro-
portional representation by list should be used. Others say that each political
party or alliance within the current system should include at least one woman for
each constituency. This was also the view of FederAction, the newly constituted
civil society platform launched in a peaceful march just weeks before the 2005
election. Both these views, although divergent, mesh with the Sachs Commis-
sion's options to boost female legislative representation.

People have also differed on whether the best-loser system could be used to im-
prove women's entry into the legislature. Sheila Bunwaree, at a workshop organ-
ised by the Media Watch Organisation on February 14, 2005, argued that
best-loser seats be reserved for women as a temporary measure only, since the
country had not engaged in any electoral reform so far and the female population
was still waiting for the proportional representation recommended by the Sachs
Commission. She insisted that gender, not ethnicity, should be the criterion for
allocating best-loser seats only until the country found a better way to include
more women in parliament.

On March 17, 2005, the MMM-MSM govemment proposed an amendment to

the Constitution with a view to introducing proportional representation into the
electoral system as well as increasing the number of best-loser seats from eight to
18, seven of which would be reserved for women. Some favoured this amend-
ment, believing it would increase female representation. For example, Pravind
Jugnauth, the former Deputy Prime Minister (October 1, 2003; July 7, 2005),
stated that the proposed amendment would provide "a double opportunity for
women", that is, seven best-loser seats plus seats that would be occupied by
women elected "via the normal process" (Week-End, June 8, 2005). The two fe-
male ministers on the cabinet also favoured it (O'Neill 2005).

However, members of the opposition, along with civil society groups, rejected
the amendment, and specifically the requirement of reserving seven best-loser
seats for women, and urged the government to withdraw it. Sheila Bappoo de-
scribed the proposed amendment as retrograde and humiliating for women be-
cause it treated women as "second class citizens" (O'Neill 2005).'^ According to
Bappoo, it not only raises community tension and destabilises national unity, but
it introduces sexism into the Constitution (O'Neill 2005). Rama Sithanen, a lead-
ing figure of the opposition at the time of the proposed amendment and now Min-
ister of Finance, said that if best-loser seats were reserved for women only,
women would be entering the parliament as "second class MPs" (L 'Express, Feb-
ruary 20, 2005). Anil Bachoo, leader of the Mouvement Social Democrat, argued
that the proposition to reserve seven best-loser seats for women was an insult to
 Women's Representation in Mauritius 243

the "competencies of women" {Week-End, June 8, 2005). FederAction similarly

responded that "women were being treated as doormats". It questioned the gov-
ernment's intention to tamper with the Constitution so hastily when the country
was approaching a new election, and argued that the Constitution should be revis-
ited in a holistic manner, not a piecemeal way {Week-End, June 8, 2005).
The labels "second class citizens" or "second class MPs" have never been used to
refer to best-loser MPs as long as the best-loser system has operated. Why, then,
did some people make such references when the government attempted to in-
crease women's legislative representation through the very same system? Per-
haps they believe that women should enter parliament on their own merits. In the
end, after generating much criticism, the MMM-MSM government failed to pro-
duce the amendment. All in all, the difference in opinion on the issue of quotas
for women and the mechanics of those quotas makes it clear that redressing
women's underrepresentation in Mauritian politics through quotas is not feasible,
at least not in the near future.

Conclusion
This study examined the factors that hinder women's legislative representation in
Mauritius and whether the country is likely to adopt gender quotas. Given the ab-
sence of consensus on the issue of gender quotas and the lack of strong political
support for a constitutional amendment to introduce them, it is unlikely that Mau-
ritius will adopt them in the foreseeable future. Hence, the country will continue
to live with "a grave democratic deficit" for quite some time. Consolidation of
democratic governance cannot materialise unless the political playing field is lev-
elled for both men and women for the representation of diverse interests within
society. Meaningful constitutional quotas are necessary to ensure women's equi-
table representation in the legislature, otherwise Mauritius will not be able to
meet the 30 per cent SADC target, let alone the 30 per cent representation of
women in party leadership positions that the African Union intends to call for at
its next summit.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like it to be noted that they contributed equally to this paper. They also wish to
thank the three anonymous referees and Dominique Battles for their comments and suggestions.

Notes
1. The Sachs Commission was created in 2000 to propose an alternative to the present Mauritian
electoral system. The commission was named after the chairperson, South African Judge
Albie Sachs.
2. Among examples are Matland (1998), Norris (1985), Rule (1987) and Yoon (2001, 2004).
3. The percentage of women in parliament is 34.8 in Mozambique, 48.8 in Rwanda and 32.8 in
South Africa (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2005).
4. In 2003, in addition to 24 women, 15 more were elected to unreserved seats, making a total of
39 women in the National Assembly. Women also occupy six of 20 seats in the Senate
(Inter-Parliamentary Union 2003).
244 Journal of Contemporary African Studies

5. Among these countries are also Uganda (23.9 per cent), Eritrea (22.0 per cent) and Tanzania
(21.4 per cent). Seychelles, where women occupy 29.4 per cent of legislative seats has used a
mixed system to elect MPs. Specifically, of 34 MPs, 25 are directly elected by simple majority
vote and the rest are elected by proportional representation (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2005).
6. As Table 1 shows, in 1982, 1991 and 1995 only four best-loser seats were allocated (Mathur
1997:64).
7. For thorough discussion on the Mauritian electoral system, see Mathur (1997).
8. The Freedom House country ratings are based on political rights and civil liberties scores of
each country. On the 1.0-7.0 scale, countries whose averages of combined scores fall within
the range of 1.0-2.5 are designated 'free'; those in the 3.0-5.0 range, 'partly free'; and those in
the 6.0-7.0 range, 'not free'.
9. According to Dyer and Houbert (1995/1996;363), "the best-loser system was introducted prin-
cipally to placate Muslim fears".
10. Tamils, who account for 6.5 per cent of the Mauritian population, have played an active role in
politics and trade unions and are seen as a 'link community' between Creoles and Bhojpuri-
and Hindi-speaking Hindus, although they are not one of the officially recognised communi-
ties (Reddi 2005).
11. Interview with Paula Atchia, Port Louis, Mauritius, June 9, 2005.
12. The 1976 election was a three-party contest between the Labour party, the Mouvement Mili-
tant Maurieien and the Parti Maurieien Social Demoerate. For more on the previous elections,
see Darga (2005).
13. While 33 women contested in 2000, 63 contested in 2005. For candidates by gender, see
Chiroro (2005).
14. For election results, see Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (2005).
15. Correspondence with Loga Virahsawmy, August 30, 2005. She is president of the Media
Watch Organisation in Mauritius.
16. Interview with Marie France Roussety, Reduit, Mauritius, June 14, 2005.
17. See Inter-Parliamentary Union (2005).
18. Interview with Frangoise Labelle, Rose Hill, Mauritius, June 9, 2005.
19. Sheila Bappoo is still president of the Women's League of the Labour Party.

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