1. The 2000 Remake has passed its first electoral test while the Labour/PMSD alliance  have registered  their first electoral setback since 2005 when Ramgoolam emerged as invincible.

2. The Labour Party’s strategy has failed despite the armada of generously paid advisers and the abuse made of the MBC and other institutions.

3. Voters have not blindly followed  party discipline  and consequently picked and chose their representatives independently and  dumped incompetent candidates imposed by their political leaders.

4. No blank cheque has been given to councilors as voters have also opted for an Opposition in all municipalities  with the exception of  Beau-Bassin / Rose-Hill . There is hope for a healthier democratic game.

5. There has been  a minor swing in favour of the Opposition if we use the last 2005 elections  as yardstick when all five municipal councils fell to the Labour- led Alliance Social.(How much has been the MSM’s contribution to the Opposition’s victory is yet to be tabulated  just as is the real weight of the PMSD and his leader as urban vote-catchers).

6. Electoral bribery  and treating like the distribution of flour , rice and  macaroni , the last minute resurfacing of certain roads and lanes on the eve of elections, or still, the move by the PSSA as the electoral campaign was peaking to take over the previously fee-paying Doha Institute  didn’t   guarantee a vote bank.

7. The stifling of the people’s voice by the discredited and blatantly biased IBA has clearly done a disservice to the masters they wanted to shield.

8. Government leaders should have had the humility to concede defeat  rather than embark on a grotesque acrobatic play for the gallery that the Labour/PMSD alliance has won rather than lost these local elections. The majority of Mauritians , including  Labour diehards , are thinking people who expect to be treated as such. The leaders’  exercise in self glorification and complacency  following the results masks a cruel deficit in intellectual integrity  .

9. The silent majority have condemned by their vote the maladministration of the Municipalities over the last seven years  by incompetent councilors ,the wastage of tax- payers money by unjustified  overseas travels,  the  various projects left unrealized  , the partying mentality of most councilors  , the unbelievable lightness  in dealing with  certain problems like that of street vendors  and above all, the absence of any vision .

10 The majority of urban voters have also said ‘no’ to the fact that everything is possible in politics  and henceforth  will no more swallow water snakes for spaghetti , sorry macaroni!

Vidya Golam