The president of Mauritius dissolves Parliament and calls legislative elections for November

MADRID 4 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of Mauritius, Prithvirajsing Roopun, has dissolved the National Assembly this Friday by decree and has called legislative elections for November 10 in what will be the thirteenth elections to be held in the African island country.

“October 22, 2024 has been set as the nomination day (of the candidates) and November 10, 2024 as the election day,” reads the presidential decree, reported by the Mauritian public television station MBC.

The President of Mauritius, in a brief message to the nation lasting about two minutes, has called on citizens to fulfill their civic duty and go to the polls in November. Likewise, he has asked for “respect for democracy.”

The Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, was re-elected in November 2019 for a second five-year term under the coalition led by the center-left Militant Socialist Movement party.

Jugnauth’s coalition managed to win 42 seats against its main rivals, Navinchandra Ramgoolam’s Labor Party and Paul Berenger’s Militant Mauritian Movement, which won 12 and nine seats, respectively.

The current prime minister took office after the mandate of his father, Anerood Jugnauth, which ended in January 2017. Mauritius, a country with 1.3 million inhabitants that defines itself as the bridge between Africa and Asia, lives mainly on financial services, manufacturing and tourism.

The announcement also comes after the United Kingdom and Mauritius have announced a historic agreement reached after two years of negotiations according to which London will return the Chagos archipelago, colonized more than half a century ago, to the African country.