2010 Mauritian general election

General elections were held in Mauritius on 5 May 2010. The coalition composed of the Mauritius Labour Party under Navin Ramgoolam, the Militant Socialist Movement under Pravind Jugnauth and the Mauritian Social Democrat Party under Xavier Duval won a majority with 41 seats in the parliament. The Mauritian Militant Movement-led coalition under Paul Berenger finished second with 18 seats. The Mauritian Solidarity Front won one seat and the Rodrigues Movement won the two remaining seats. The elections were the ninth to be held since independence from the United Kingdom in 1968.

The Mauritius Labour Party, the Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD) and the Militant Socialist Movement(MSM) joined together into an alliance called Alliance de L'avenir (Template:Lang-en) for this election. Ramgoolam, the alliance leader, alloted 35 seats to his own party to compete for the 60 seats on the island, whereas the MSM was given 18 and the PMSD 7. Before the election, it appeared that Berenger might gain back the PM's post that he held from 2003 to 2005; he was the first prime minister since independence that was not of South Asian origin. Berenger led his own alliance of parties, known as the Alliance du Coeur (Template:Lang-en), a reference to the official logo of the Mauritian Militant Movement, by far the biggest party in that alliance. The 2 other seats are competed by parties based in Rodrigues, with the Rodrigues People's Organisation and the Rodrigues Movement being the main parties there.

During the election, 62 seats in the National Assembly of Mauritius were contested with a further 8 seats to be designated by the electoral commission under a complex formula designed to keep a balance of ethnic groups in the parliament. The candidates must declare which ethnic group (Hindu, Muslim, Chinese or "general population") they belong to in order to run for a seat. This year 104 of the candidate refused to do so, resulting in them being disqualified, leaving 529 candidates for the seats. Around 130 foreign observers, including some from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community were present to monitor the voting process.

Around 900,000 people were eligible to vote in the election. The counting of votes began on 6 May with results expected by that afternoon. With 30% of votes counted the Alliance de l’Avenir was ahead in 40 of the seats and the Alliance du Coeur in 19, though no seat had yet been declared. Turnout was estimated at 78%, down from 81.5% in 2005's election and the lowest turnout since 1976. The electoral commission said that the voting process went well and there were no formal complaints.

This election was marked by accusation from Paul Berenger of abuse of the state owned television station, the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, by the incumbent government to influence voters. He also accused his political opponents to use communalism to swing votes given that he forms part of the Franco-Mauritian minority. The main issues debated were economic and constitutional reform, fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and ethnicity.

The Alliance de l’Avenir obtained 49.31% of the total votes with Alliance du Coeur seizing 42.36%. The remaining parties and indepedent candidates obtained 8.14% of the votes. Out of the 62 seats, only ten women were elected.