Incumbent Premier Wins Five-Year Mandate in Mauritian Election

(Bloomberg) -- Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is poised to extend his tenure by five years with provisional results showing he won this week’s election.

The tallies have Jugnauth’s Alliance Morisien winning 35 of the 60 seats in the Indian Ocean island nation’s parliament, the electoral commission said Friday. The party beat former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam’s Alliance Nationale and ex-Premier Paul Berenger’s Mouvement Militant Mauricien, which garnered 13 and 9 seats respectively so far, it said.

The 57-year-old premier has presided over accelerating economic growth, declining unemployment and slowing inflation since he took over from his father, Anerood Jugnauth, in January 2017.

“The Mauritian people have expressed their satisfaction with what has been accomplished under his tenure as prime minister, such as minimum wages, new workers’ rights act, free tertiary education,” Dan Maraye, a former Bank of Mauritius governor and political analyst, said by phone.

While a foundation started by Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim has consistently ranked Mauritius as Africa’s best-governed country and the World Bank rates it as the continent’s easiest place to do business, the island is facing headwinds from the global slowdown. Economic growth has lagged the 4% target the incumbent government set when it took power in 2014 and the International Monetary Fund expects that to persist until 2021.

Jugnauth, who faced criticism when he bypassed the electorate to take power from his father, highlighted the progress his administration has made in sustaining growth, introducing a national minimum wage and building a new light-rail network that’s due to start operating next month. He pledged to raise old-age pensions by 45% to 9,000 rupees ($246) if he retained power.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis at kbhuckory1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson

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