In a couple of days, we will be waving goodbye to a year that has been hard for a large chunk of us and looking forward with anticipation to the New Year. And since hope always triumphs over experience, we will keep the typical tradition of thinking that the New Year will bring new positive experiences.
In that context, I would like to wish a happy New Year to you and your family. I would also like to take this opportunity to share some thoughts with you for next year, a year where everyone around me is anticipating a new general election for various reasons.
That you decide to call a snap election next year is entirely your prerogative. After all, if your predecessors had wanted more fairness in the system, they would have legislated a fixed date for elections every five years. They all benefited from the same system so why shouldn't you? I don't think the population will hold that against you or grumble if you won.
From your position and considering the powers you wield as prime minister and the constant rubbing the right way you are receiving from a coterie of inept chatwas who are only interested in keeping their undeserved privileges, you might think that what the population thinks is immaterial. Wrong! We have had stability in this country largely due to free and fair elections in spite of the skewed political system we are operating under. After all, no country has a perfect system. I stress the words 'free' and 'fair' and would like to add 'seen to be free and fair'.
Hence a few suggestions I wish to humbly share with you. I can assure you that these suggestions would put an end to the perception that elections are no longer free and fair. If you implement these and you win, you will then enter history through the big door. Let your next mandate, if you are given one, be free of polemics, accusations, court cases, free range ballots, imported votes, MBC spin, shady computer rooms... Through these suggestions, for which you will get the support of all political parties, if you are elected, you will be elected with the dignity and legitimacy that come with the office.
Ban the computer rooms and let's go back to the days when trained professional men and women were allowed to carry out their duty in the uncontested way they did. You will concede that the computers did not speed up the process or make it any more efficient. The last election saw historically unprecedented delays in announcing results.
Count ballots the same day and in the same place as the election took place. We now have electricity in all the voting centres and there is no reason why we should stick to the archaic habit of transporting ballot papers to other centres, keeping them overnight and counting them the next day. This suggestion was also made by the international electoral observers at the last election. What is the point of inviting observers if their suggestions are not considered?
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Ban the voting rights of foreign workers. Those who were bussed around to vote at the last election don't speak our language, don't understand our system and have no idea what is going on in this country. Their vote can make or break an election. Besides, we don't have the right to vote in their countries so we are under no obligation to allow them to vote in ours.
Advise the people you have recently appointed on the Electoral Supervisory Commission to recuse themselves and give back to the commission the independence it once enjoyed.
Appoint a professional at the head of the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation so that political parties are treated fairly.
Abstain from making electoral promises you know we can't afford.
In other words, Prime Minister, enter through the door and shake off the Limpost title that has been sticking to you since 2017. That is genuinely what I wish for you this year. Happy New Year again.
