Constitution

Constitution

Source: Government of Mauritius

The Republic of Mauritius is a sovereign democratic state within the Commonwealth with a long tradition of parliamentary democracy.
The Constitution guarantees to the citizen his fundamental rights: right to liberty and protection of the law, freedom of conscience, freedom of association, of movement and of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of creed and of religious belief as well as the right to private property.
The Constitution establishes clearly the separation of powers between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.

The National Assembly is the supreme body where its members vote laws, discuss the affairs of the nation and control the use of public funds.
The members of the National Assembly are chosen during general elections which take place every five years on the basis of universal adult suffrage and secret ballot. The right to vote is at 18. For electoral purposes, the Mauritian territory is divided into 21 constituencies, the island of Mauritius having 20 constituencies and the island of Rodrigues forming the 21st. Each constituency returns three candidates with the exception of Rodrigues which returns two. The National Assembly comprises 70 members: 62 elected members as well as eight additional seats allocated to “best losers” so as to achieve communal balance without disturbing the political equilibrium established by the election results.
The Constitution provides for the nomination of a Leader of the Opposition. The President appoints Leader of the Opposition, the member, who in his opinion, is best able to have the support of the opposition parties in the Assembly.

The Head of State is the President of the Republic who is elected by the National Assembly. The President appoints as Prime Minister the member of the Assembly who appears to him best able to command the support of the majority of the members of the Assembly. Acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, the President appoints the Deputy Prime Minister and other ministers from the members of the Assembly.

The Prime Minister is the Head of the Government. He presides over the Cabinet of Ministers which is collectively responsible to the National Assembly for any action taken by one of its members. The present government which came into power after general elections held in December 1995 is composed as follows:
Responsibility for the conduct of any business of the government, including the responsibility for the administration of any department of the government rests with the Prime Minister and other Ministers.
A Minister who has been charged with the responsibility for the administration of any department of the government, exercises general direction and control over that department which is placed under the supervision of a Permanent Secretary or some other supervisory officer whose office is a public office.

Government ministries and departments are the main instruments for advising ministers, for policy formulation and for the implementation of plans and policies. The term Civil Service is commonly used to define all personnel holding an office in the central government, i.e. Ministries and their departments. Civil Servants are responsible to their respective Ministers who are alone answerable to the National Assembly for their policies and actions of their staff in the pursuit of those policies.
The power to appoint persons to hold or act in any office in the Civil Service, to exercise disciplinary control over persons holding such offices is vested in the Public Service Commission. There is also a Disciplined Forces Service Commission which operates on the same lines as the Public Service Commission. The members of both these commissions are appointed by the President of the Republic.
Apart from the Civil Service proper as defined above, there are also a number of corporate bodies which are administered and controlled by Boards appointed by the responsible Minister. A few examples are the Central Electricity Board, the Central Water Authority and the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation. A General Manager or Director General is responsible to execute the policy of the Board and to control and manage its day to day business. Appointments of officers are generally the responsibility of the respective boards.

The concept of the separation of powers, as defined by the Constitution, guarantees the independence of the judiciary. The Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the country. It is a superior court of record and the principal court of civil and criminal jurisdiction. It hears appeals from all other courts of the country i.e. District Courts, Intermediate Court, Industrial Court and has special jurisdiction to protect the constitutional rights of the citizen.
The Constitution has maintained the right of appeal against judgements of the Supreme Court to the Privy Council in Great Britain.
Appointments in the judicial service are made by the Judicial and Legal Service Commission.

The Ombudsman is appointed by the President of the Republic on the advice of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and of any other person whom he feels are leaders of parties in the Assembly.
The Ombudsman has the power to inquire into allegations of maladministration which has caused harm to a member of the public as well as into allegations of fraud and corruption.

The Constitution provides for a local government to manage local matters. For this purpose Mauritius is divided into towns, districts and villages. There are five municipal councils in the urban areas and in the rural areas there are four district councils under which fall 126 village councils. The five municipal councils are those of Port Louis, Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Quatre Bornes, Vacoas-Phoenix and Curepipe. The four district councils are: Pamplemousses-RiviŠre du Rempart, Moka-Flacq, Grand Port-Savanne and Black River.
The district councils consist of representatives of village councils. The village council is the smallest unit of local government and has its own constitution and powers to carry out certain functions.
The representatives of local authorities are democratically elected during elections which are held every five years.