All calm as Mauritius votes

Waving red and blue banners, supporters of the incumbent Mauritius Labor Party coalition dance on Sunday in the streets of Quatre Bornes, Mauritius, outside the capital Port Louis

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius (Reuters) -- Voters in Mauritius turned out in big numbers on Monday for an election which will decide whether the island state's old guard can wrest back power from a beleaguered new generation.

By early afternoon, large numbers of people had already voted in the sort of weather that attracts more than 750,000 visitors to the Indian Ocean tourist hotspot each year -- sunny, clear blue skies with just the hint of a breeze to take away the humidity.

The election itself was just as calm as the weather, with one member of a team of regional observers saying the ballot was the most peaceful he had overseen.

"If all elections could be like this, Africa would be a very different place," the observer from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) told Reuters.

More than 500 candidates were standing in 21 constituencies for 62 seats in the national assembly. Eight "best losers" are appointed by the electoral commission.

The race was chiefly between an alliance of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam's Labor Party (PTr) and Xavier-Luc Duval's small Mauritian Party (PMXD) and an opposition alliance of former Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth's Socialist Militant party (MSM) and Paul Berenger's Militant Movement (MMM).

At stake was control of a small but prosperous economy and the opportunity to position the island in the new world order.

Jugnauth and Berenger are widely credited with transforming Mauritius in the 1980s from a sleepy backwater known chiefly for sugar and tourism into a modern manufacturing center swiftly emerging as a financial services base.

Promises of reform

But Jugnauth was voted out of office after 13 years in power in 1995 when the youthful Ramgoolam -- with kingmaker Berenger's backing -- won the election on a platform of constitutional reform and further economic liberalization.

Berenger says that Ramgoolam went back on his word after those elections, and so has joined forces with Jugnauth in an alliance that would see the former premier rule for three years before being appointed president.

If they win, Berenger would be finance minister and take over the premiership in 2003.

Ramgoolam's government has been hit by corruption scandals in the past few months, but the son of the island's first post-independence ruler is convinced he will be re-elected.

"We are bringing stability, unity and modernity, whereas the other side will bring division and trouble," he told a rally on Sunday. "The MMM/MSM alliance is a ship with two captains."

Mauritian society is dominated by a complex system of race, class and caste, which was likely to influence the outcome.

Both alliances draw support from ethnic Indians who make up the majority of the island's 1.2 million people. Fifty percent are Hindus, while ethnic Indian Muslims make up a further 16 percent and Chinese three percent.

The remaining 30 percent are chiefly Afro-Creole, the mixed blood descendants of former slaves, or white Franco or Anglo descendants of colonial settlers. It is this bloc that could swing the election.

More than 80 percent of the island's 750,000 registered voters were expected to cast ballots -- including more than 50 centenarians and one woman aged 107.

Voting was taking place at nearly 300 polling stations on the island and neighboring Rodrigues -- which supplies two members of the national assembly - with 13,000 government employees assigned to oversee the ballot.

Counting begins on Tuesday and is expected to be complete within the day.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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