Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, GCSK, FRCP is a Mauritian politician who was Prime Minister of Mauritius from 2005 to 2014 and leader of the Labour Party. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1991 to 1995. He served as Prime Ministerfor the first time from December 1995 until September 2000, and became Leader of the Opposition again from October 2000 to 4 July 2005. On 5 July 2005, he became prime minister for a second term after his Alliance Sociale won the general elections. He served again as Prime Minister from 2005 to 2014, when he was defeated afterwards.
The leadup to the general elections held in 1991 saw a realignment of the country's major political parties. The Mauritian Militant Movement, which had been the main opposition party, decided to contest the election as an ally of Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth's Militant Socialist Movement. Ramgoolam's Labour Party and Gaëtan Duval's Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate, both of which had been allied with the MSM in the previous election, formed a separate alliance, along with the Rodrigues People's Organisation. A major campaign issue was the proposal of the MSM-MMM alliance to cut the country's ties with the British Monarchy and declare a republic with a President as head of state. Ramgoolam opposed this, arguing that the Presidential office would be too ceremonial, leaving all executive powers effectively in the hands of the Prime Minister. The election turned out to be a landslide for Jugnauth. The MSM/MMM alliance won 57 of the 62 directly elected seats. Of the 5 seats won by Ramgoolam's alliance, 2 were held by the OPR and 3 by his own Labour Party. Following his defeat, he took leave as Leader of the Opposition and returned to London to complete his law vocational course at Inns of Court School of Law. He was called to United Kingdom Bar, Inner Temple in 1993. In 1993, Prime Minister Jugnauth asked the Speaker of the National Assembly to declare Ramgoolam's seat vacant as he had not attended Parliament for three consecutive momeths. The Speaker referred the case to the Court but the Judge found that it was unconstitutional. Shortly afterwards, Jugnauth dismissed Bérenger from the Cabinet after learning that Ramgoolam had hosted him at a private dinner at his Riverwalk residence. Bérenger and 10 MMM members joined Ramgoolam on the opposition benches. Although the MMM caucus was larger than the Labour Party caucus, he agreed to let Ramgoolam continue as Leader of the Opposition.
The Labour Party and the MMM went on to forge an alliance to contest the 1995 elections. The alliance won all 60 directly elected seats from the mainland. Ramgoolam became Prime Minister with Bérenger as his Deputy. The coalition soon fractured and Ramgoolam dismissed Bérenger in 1997. Bérenger then became Leader of the Opposition, while Ramgoolam formed a one-party government.
Jugnauth and Bérenger formed a new alliance to contest the 2000 elections. Part of the agreement was to allow Jugnauth to serve for the first three years of the five-year term, then resign to assume the Presidency and allow Bérenger to complete his unexpired term. Ramgoolam, for his part, formed an alliance with the Mauritian Party of Xavier-Luc Duval, a breakaway from the PMSD led by Xavier-Luc Duval, the son of Sir Gaëtan Duval. The MSM/MMM alliance won 54 of the 60 directly elected mainland seats. Ramgoolam, who had retained his own seat, became Leader of the Opposition.
2005 elections
His Alliance Social won the general elections against the MSM/MMM outgoing government. He was again appointed as prime minister with a majority of 38 out of 60 seats. His alliance also won the local/municipal elections in 2006 where the MSM/MMM was severely defeated. These consecutive defeats and internal instability caused the break-up of the MSM/MMM coalition. As the MSM had more seats than the MMM and Pravind Jugnauth was not elected, Nando Bodha was appointed as Leader of the Opposition.
With the 2010 elections approaching, Ramgoolam decided in 2008 to support Jugnauth for re-election as President, to forestall a possible return by Jugnauth to parliamentary politics, where Ramgoolam viewed him as a potential threat. Jugnauth's condition for accepting the offer was an alliance between the Labour Party and the MSM. At Ramgoolam's insistence, the Alliance de L'Avenir also included the PMSD, into which the PMXD, and its leader, Xavier-Luc Duval, had merged; seven of the sixty parliamentary candidates would come from the PMSD). The Alliance de L'Avenir won 41 of the 60 directly elected seats. Ramgoolam remained Prime Minister and Pravind Jugnauth, son of Sir Anerood Jugnauth, became his Deputy. Following the involvement of some members of the MSM in the Medpoint Scandal, however, Ramgoolam dismissed the MSM from the government.
2014 elections
The general elections originally scheduled for 2015 were brought forward to December 2014. The Labour Party made a new alliance with the MMM, proposing a constitutional amendment to upgrade the Presidency to a less ceremonial role. Ramgoolam and Bérenger, the MMM leader, claimed that the election was a referendum on the proposal, which they called the Second Republic. If the alliance one more than 45 of the 60 directly elected mainland seats, the Constitution would be amended; Ramgoolam would run for the Presidency and Bérenger would succeed him as Prime Minister. Ramgoolam and Berenger were opposed by the MSM-led Alliance Lepep, which also included the PMSD, which had been Ramgoolam's coalition partner, and a new party called Muvman Liberater, formed by a significant portion of ex-members of the MMM who were opposed to the idea of giving Ramgoolam more powers. The Alliance Lepep, which opposed the proposal for the Second Republic, won 47 seats out of 60. The Labour-MMM alliance won only 13 seats, 9 from the MMM and 4 from the Labour Party. Ramgoolam lost his seat for the first time in his political career. On 12 December 2014, he resigned as Prime Minister of Mauritius.
