The Need to Correct the Anomaly of Unequal Constituency Size

Electoral Reform in Mauritius

The Government of Mauritius has set up a Ministerial Committee to make proposals on electoral reforms and the terms of reference of this committee includes seven issues. However, one important issue which is of greater importance and has not been included is the unequal size of the constituencies.

Let us have a look at the electoral registers of 2014 and 2015.

Const. No.	Constituency Name	No. of Electors 2015	No. of Electors 2014
1	Grand River North West and Port Louis West	41,905	42,456
2	Port Louis South and Port Louis Central	25,081	25,470
3	Port Louis Maritime and Port Louis East	22,771	23,112
4	Port Louis North and Montagne Longue	49,217	49,865
5	Pamplemousses and Triolet	61,347	62,092
6	Grand Baie and Poudre D’Or	51,743	52,351
7	Piton and Riviere du Rempart	42,581	43,079
8	Quartier Militaire and Moka	43,775	44,314
9	Flacq and Bon Accueil	54,146	54,724
10	Montagne Blanche and Grand River South East	50,358	50,936
11	Vieux Grand Port and Rose Belle	42,120	42,590
12	Mahebourg and Plaine Magnien	37,934	38,363
13	Riviere des Anguilles and Souillac	34,755	35,151
14	Savanne and Black River	61,744	62,524
15	La Caverne and Phoenix	56,437	57,104
16	Vacoas and Floreal	45,855	46,479
17	Curepipe and Midlands	47,239	47,899
18	Belle Rose and Quatre Bornes	43,790	44,357
19	Stanley and Rose Hill	39,934	40,507
20	Beau Bassin and Petitie Riviere	44,236	44,817
21	Rodrigues	28,414	28,785
TOTAL		925382	936,975

Source: Electoral Commission of Mauritius

 Let us now make a close analysis.

  First Observation

 All the constituencies of the island of Mauritius elect 3 MPs while the island of Rodrigues elects only 2 MPs. A disturbing fact; Constituency No 3 in Mauritius has only 22 771 electors and will elect 3 MPs. Similarly Constituency No 2 in Mauritius, having only 25 081 electors, will also elect 3 MPs while Rodrigues with a much higher number – 28 414 electors will elect only 2 MPs.

Constituency	No of Voters	No of MPs
No. 2	25 081	3
No. 3	22 771	3
Rodrigues	28 414	2

 Facts to be noted:

 – From 1966 to 1996, the number of voters in Rodrigues was much less than any constituency of Mauritius and it was acceptable that Rodrigues votes for only 2 MPs. After 1997, the number of voters in Rodrigues has exceeded the number in each one of Constituencies No. 2 and No 3 of Mauritius. Nevertheless, Rodrigues has continued to elect only 2 MPs. This unfairness has to be corrected. The table below shows the evolution of the number of registered voters in these three constituencies.

Year	Voters in Const. No 2	Voters in Const. No 3	Voters in Rodrigues
1967	10 549	9 373	7 061
1983	19 678	16 494	14 460
1985	20 441	13 450	15 373
1990	25 515	25 520	17 528
1991	25 930	20701	18 176
1995	24 741	19 524	18 500
1997	24 772	19 421	19 474
1999	23 958	18 774	20 186
2000	25 081	22 234	21 180
2015	25 081	22 771	28 414

 In the light of this evolution in the number of voters in the respective constituencies, the Electoral Boundaries Commission should have made recommendations to the National Assembly to take corrective measures and set the balance right.

 Second Observation

 Constituency No 2 has only 22 771 voters and elects 3 MPs while Constituency No 5 with 61 347 voters will also elect only 3 MPs. How come a constituency which has almost 3 times the number of voters compared to the other will return the same number of MPs. Similarly Constituency No 14 with 61 744 voters will also return only 3 MPs to the National Assembly.

Constituency	No of Voters	No of MPs
NO 2	25 081	3
NO 3	22 771	3
NO 5	61 347	3
NO 14	61 744	3

 Facts to be noted:

 – When the Banwell Report was applied in the 1960s, the number of voters in any two constituencies of Mauritius, taken together, was not less than the number of voters in a single constituency. For example, for the 1967 general election, the combined number of voters in Constituencies No 2 and No 3 was nearly 20 000 and no single constituency of Mauritius had more voters than this number. The greatest constituencies at that moment (No 14 and No 15) had nearly 16 000 voters each.

With the passage of time, this situation has reversed. The combined total number of voters in No 2 and No 3 is much less than the number of voters in one single constituency. The table below clearly illustrates this fact.

YEAR	No. 2	No. 3	No. 2 + No. 3	No. 5	No. 14
1985	20 441	13 450	33 891	31 392	32 937
1990	25 515	25 520	51 035	36 509	39 606
1995	24 741	19524	44 256	41 365	43 819
1997	24 772	19 421	44 193	43 167	46 121
2000	23 856	22 234	46 090	46 854	49 724
2015	25 081	22 771	47 852	61 347	61 744

  How can the number of voters in two constituencies taken together be less than the number of voters in a single constituency? It is seen from the last elections that, despite having lesser number of voters, Constituencies numbers 2 and 3 are electing 6 MPs while a higher number of voters are electing only 3 MPs in Nos 5 and 14, for example.

	No of Voters	No of MPs
No. 2 + No. 3	47 852	6
No. 5	61 347	3
No. 14	61 744	3
NO 5 + NO 14	123 091	6

 Viewed from another angle, we note, that 47 852 voters in No 2 and No 3 will elect 6 MPs in one geographical part of the island whereas it took 123 091 voters from some other geographical areas to elect 6 MPs. This is what happened in the 2014 general election and may recur. So, what looked all right in 1967 and some years later has evolved in a manner as if the absence of corrective action to redress the situation has led to some sort of a de facto “gerrymandering” of constituencies.

 This is a very disturbing fact and has to be corrected to restore fairness in the electoral system.

 Third Observation

 Out of the 20 constituencies of Mauritius, there is a huge disparity in 10 of them. There is a difference of 124 924 voters between the 5 most populated constituencies and the 5 least populated ones. Out of 445 946 voters, the votes of 124 924 voters are ‘lost’. This represents a wastage of 28%. Some people are trying to come forward with the proposal of a dose of PR with a threshold of 5% to 10% when there is a “loss’ of 28% due to unequal constituency sizes.

Constituency	No of Voters		Constituency	No of Voters
No. 3	22 771		No. 14	61 744
No. 2	25 081		No. 5	61 347
No. 13	34 755		No. 15	56 437
No. 12	37 934		No. 9	54 146
No. 19	39 934		No. 6	51 743
TOTAL	160 475		TOTAL	285 471

 This represents an anomaly of 50% on delimitation (10 out of 20 constituencies).

No system can be seen to be functioning with such a degree of deviation for long. If we want any society (organization) to progress, we need to have checks and balances at appropriate times and make recommendations to administrators so that corrective measures are taken at the earliest possible and the situation is redressed. Only then can we save the system or organization from going irreversibly in the wrong direction. It will have to be put it back on track. If we delay and let it trail, it might be too late and the organization can lose credibility and result in a loss of confidence in it .

 What our Constitution says on constituency size

 This is what is stipulated in Chapter V – Part 1 – Section 39:

“(2)   The Electoral Boundaries Commission shall review the boundaries of the constituencies at such times as will enable them to present a report to the Assembly 10 years, as near as may be, after 12 August 1966 and, thereafter, 10 years after presentation of their last report:

Provided that the Commission may at any time carry out a review and present a report if it considers it desirable to do so by reason of the holding of an official census of the population of Mauritius and shall do so if a resolution is passed by the Assembly in pursuance of subsection (1).

(3)    The report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission shall make recommendations for any alterations to the boundaries of the constituencies as appear to the Commission to be required so that the number of inhabitants of each constituency is as nearly equal as is reasonably practicable to the population quota:

Provided that the number of inhabitants of a constituency may be greater or less than the population quota in order to take account of means of communication, geographical features, density of population and the boundaries of administrative areas.

(4)    The Assembly may, by resolution, approve or reject the recommendations of the Electoral Boundaries Commission but may not vary them; and, if so approved, the recommendations shall have effect as from the next dissolution of Parliament.

(5)    In this section, “population quota” means the number obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants of the Island of Mauritius (including any island included in any constituency in the Island of Mauritius by virtue of any resolution under subsection (1)) according to the latest official census of the population of Mauritius by 20.”

 What previous reports say on unequal constituency size

 Many reports have highlighted this issue. The Carcasonne Report had made recommendations that this issue should be addressed. However, the Consultation Paper presented by the previous government before the 2014 general election has recommended that we must accept unequal constituency size.

 We strongly believe that there is an urgent need for a fresh and just delimitation of constituencies by the Electoral Boundaries Commission (EBC) before the next general election is organised. As the EBC makes a report every 10 years, the next report is due only in 2019 unless the Constitution is amended to bring forward this date. One of the latest reports submitted by the Electoral Boundaries Commission for approval by Parliament dates back to 17 December 1999 and was to take effect as from 2000, if approved.

On 18 November 2008 and 31 January 2009, the EBC invited members of the public and political parties who were interested to give their views and suggestions on electoral boundaries. Between 11 and 13 August 2009, those who had made representations were heard and on the list of those who were heard we find many small parties but none of the major parties (neither LP nor MMM nor MSM nor PMSD) appear on the list and do not seem to have brought their contribution on this issue.

On 21 October 2009, the EBC had made a request to the Central Statistical Office to provide the population quota. On 22 October 2009, the CSO has replied to the EBC and the following details were given:

Total residents: 1,143,358

No. of constituencies: 20

Population quota: 57,167.90

Again, the EBC has made a report and recommendation in 2009 and submitted it to Parliament but no action has yet been taken.

 What we propose on unequal constituency size

The population quota appears to be a very controversial aspect. For the purpose of an election, we feel that we must not use population quota. Instead, we must use a voters’ quota which must be the total number of voters divided by the number of constituencies or wards.

Now, how can we say that 22 771 is as nearly equal as is reasonably practical when compared to 61 744? There is a deviation of nearly 250% between the two.

Accordingly, for the purpose of general elections, we have tried to determine a quota per constituency, using the formula;

No. of voters per constituency = Total number of voters in Mauritius in 2015 ÷ 20 = 896 968 ÷ 20 = 44 848

This can be roughly taken to be 45 000 per constituency. Therefore, ideally there must be about 45 000 voters in each constituency of Mauritius electing 3 MPs if we are talking of fairness and equity. We know that an ideal condition is not always possible and we are prepared to accept a confidence limit of 90%. As a justified acceptance limit would be 45 000 – 5% to 45 000 + 5%. When we compute, 5% of 45 000 = 2250. We shall take this to be roughly equal to 2000.

So the number of voters in a constituency should be between 43 000 and 47 000 to reflect an acceptable degree of fairness in the Mauritian voting system.

In conclusion, unequal constituency size has become a major concern and Government must include this issue while considering electoral reforms in Mauritius.

*  Published in print edition on 25 March 2016

Tags:Commission, Electoral Boundaries, Electoral Reform, Labour Party, MMM, MSM, PMSD, Unequal Constituency Size, Vijay Ahku