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Parliament of Mauritius

Mauritian National Assembly
10th National Assembly of Mauritius
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Maya Hanoomanjee
Since December 10, 2014
Pravind Jugnauth, MSM-ML
Since January 23, 2017
Xavier Luc Duval, PMSD
Since December 19, 2016
Structure
Seats 62 plus 8 non-voting members
Seats of Mauritanian National Assembly.svg
Political groups

Government (42)

  •      MSM (33)
  •      ML (7)
  •      OPR (2)

Opposition (27)

  •      PMSD (11)
  •      MMM (10)
  •      MLP (4)
Elections
Last election
December 10, 2014
Meeting place
Port Louis, Parliament Building.jpg
Parliament House, Port Louis
Website
Official website

Government (42)

Opposition (27)

The National Assembly is Mauritius's unicameral legislature, which was called the Legislative Assembly until 1992, when the country became a republic. The Constitution of Mauritius provides for the parliament of Mauritius to consist of the President and the National Assembly. The parliament of Mauritius is modelled after the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, where members of parliament are voted in at regular general elections, on the basis of a first past the post system.

It consists of 70 members, 62 directly elected for five-year terms in multi-member constituencies and 8 additional members, known as "best losers", appointed by the Electoral Supervisory Commission to ensure that ethnic and religious minorities are equitably represented. The Government is primarily responsible to the National Assembly and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members.

The National assembly is supreme and determines the functioning of various constitutional institutions of the country.

The President and Vice-President are both elected by the assembly for a five-year term.

The National Assembly is essential to determine which party/group forms the government and therefore the executive of the country. As per the constitution, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of the assembly. Thus, whenever the office of prime minister falls vacant, the President appoints the person who has the support of the House, or who is most likely to command the support of the House—normally the leader of the largest party in the assembly.

The political party or alliance which has the second largest majority forms the Official Opposition and its leader is normally nominated by the President of the Republic as the Leader of the Opposition.

The Assembly is made of up of 70 members, of whom 62 are directly elected in 21 constituencies. The island of Mauritius is divided into 20 constituencies returning three members each and that of Rodrigues is a single constituency returning two members. After a general election, the Electoral Supervisory Commission may nominate up to a maximum of 8 additional members in accordance with section 5 of the First Schedule of the Constitution with a view to correct any imbalance in community representation in Parliament. This system of nominating members is commonly called the best loser system.


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Wikipedia

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