Sir Anerood Jugnauth , born 29 March 1930), KCMG, QC, GCSK, PC, LLB, GOLH, GOP, ORS is the President of Mauritius[1][2] and all its dependencies. He is the Commander in Chief and Head of state incumbent since 2003 following his election in 2003 and 2008.

He served as prime minister from 1982 to 1995 in four consecutive terms and then was voted out of office from 1995 to 2000. He was the prime minister who held the office for the longest run, one of 16 years, overtaking Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who held the office for 14 years. As leader of the Militant Socialist Movement, he became prime minister again, after the 2000 elections, for his fifth term. His alliance partner, Paul Bérenger of the Mauritian Militant Movement, succeeded him in 2003 after serving as Jugnauth's deputy for three years. Jugnauth was then elected president in 2003. He was a Member of Parliament for 35 years, from 1963 to 1995 and from 2000 to 2003. Often nicknamed as Rambo (a film character known to be unbeatable), in Mauritian politics, he is known as such for his personality as he is the only prime minister who won 4 general parliamentary elections in a row, those in 1982, 1983, 1987, 1991.[3]

He was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn. He was a cabinet minister during the leadership of Seewoosagur Ramgoolam from 1965 up to 1969. In 1970, he moved out and went to the newly created political party of the Mauritian Militant Movement, where he eventually became its leader in 1982. He created his own political party called Militant Socialist Movement in 1983 and was once more elected. His party remained in power up to 1995. In 2000, he was once more elected prime minister and served until 2003, when he was sworn into the presidency. From the beginning of his first mandate as Prime Minister he expressed his country's readiness to establish strong economic ties, particularly in creating technology-based projects with economic feasibility. Jugnauth is credited with the legacy of Mauritius’ "economic miracle"[citation needed] of the 1980s - a set of policies such as the revitalization of the duty-free trade zone and establishing Mauritius as a leader in textiles production - which allowed the island to develop an economic presence in the region.[4]

He founded the Militant Socialist Movement party in 1983.[5] He was elected as prime minister in 1982 for the first time, again in 1983, and for the third time from 1991 to 1995. He was honoured with Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards for his continued support for India's causes and concerns and for strengthening India's relationship with Mauritius. He has expressed his country's readiness to establish strong economic ties, particularly in creating technology-based projects He was elected in 2000 to his final tenure as Prime Minister up to 2003 where he retired from his office.

He was made Queen's Counsel in 1980 and was made a member Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in 1983. He was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 when the Republic was still a Commonwealth Realm and when the Queen acted as Head of State. Therefore he still uses his Formal title as Sir and also the prefix The Right Honorable.

In 2010, his political party, the Militant Socialist Movement, formed a coalition with the Mauritian Labour Party and won the general elections held on the 5 May 2010. Following the elections, his son Pravind Jugnauth leader of the Militant Socialist Movement became Vice Prime Minister holding the office of Minister of Finance.
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Anerood Jugnauth was born on 29 March 1930 at La Caverne, Vacoas Phoenix, and was brought up there. He had his primary education at Palma Primary School and had his secondary education at Regent College. He taught for some time at New Eton College and later worked as a clerk in the Poor Law Department for some time before being transferred to the Judicial Department. In 1951, he left Mauritius for the UK to study law. In 1964, he was elected Chairman of the Palma Village Council. He was first elected to parliament as an Independent Forward Block candidate in the constituency of Rivière du Rempart District in 1963. He served as a magistrate shortly after his resignation in 1966. In 1969, he was promoted to the Crown Law Office. In 1971, he was made Senior Crown Counsel.[citation needed]

In the beginning of the 1970s, Jugnauth joined the Mauritian Militant Movement. He became the president and subsequently the leader of the party. Re-elected at the general election held in 1976 in the constituency of Piton/Rivière du Rempart, he served as Leader of the Opposition from December 1976 to June 1982.

Jugnauth trained and worked in law and took an active role in the 1960s negotiations for independence. Hewas called to the Bar in London in 1954. His political career began with his being elected in the Constituency of Rivière du Rempart in 1963. He was the President of the Palma Village council in 1964. He became Leader of Opposition from December 1976 to June 1982, and he joined the Mauritian Militant Movement in 1970.
[edit] Early politics

Anerood Jugnauth was first elected in the constituency No 14 of Riviere du Rempart[6] in 1963 in the National Legislative Assembly and was candidate of the Independent Forward Block.He remained member up to 1967 where general elections were back .He held the office of different ministries .

He joined the All Mauritius Hindu Congress in 1965. State Minister for Development in the government of Seewoosagur Ramgoolam from 1965 to 1966, he was promoted Minister of Labour in November 1966. He took part in the London Constitutional Conference on Mauritius. He resigned from his office in April 1967. In 1970 there was the political split of Independence Party and his All Hindu Congress Party,his party was dissolved in the thought of making Communal elections .With this the Muslim Action Committee known as the CAM was also dissolved .[7][8]
[edit] 1976 elections

The 1976 elections were contested by three of the most popular candidates on the island.These were the Independent Party [IP], an alliance of the Mauritian Labor Party, led by the Prime Minister, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, and the Muslim Action Committee; Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD) led by Gaëtan Duval; and the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) led by Paul Bérenger and Anerood Jugnauth himself. About 460 100 voters of the 0.8 million inhabitants of Mauritius registered, and 88% (404 918) of them actually voted. The election was closely fought, and no party was able to gain a majority of parliamentary seats (see 1976 Legislative Assembly election results). The MMM received most votes, 38.64%, but gained only 34 seats, two short of an absolute majority. The Independence Party (MLP and CAM) gained 37.90% and 28 seats, while the PMSD received 16.20% of the votes and eight seats. By once more forming a coalition with the PMSD, Ramgoolam managed to stay in power, but with a majority of only two seats in the Assembly.[9]

Jugnauth in alliance with Paul Berenger became the kings of politics in the island.Seewoosagur Ramgoolam ruled over the house of parliament with only two seats over the others. The Independence Alliance occupied 36 seats while MMM became opposition with 34 seats. Anerood Jugnauth was appointed as Leader of Opposition and he remained to the place until next general elections in 1982.[10]
[edit] 1982 elections and first tenure as prime minister

From 1976 to 1982, The MLP had been weakened by the defection of part of its coalition partner, the PMSD, while the CAM declined to contest the election. The MMM had formed an alliance with Harish Boodhoo's Parti Socialiste Mauricien known as PSM. Anerood Jugnauth hoped that this alliance would draw Hindu votes away from the MLP and ensure a MMM victory.

The election resulted in a landslide victory for the MMM-PSM alliance (formed by Jugnauth & Berenger in early 1981), which won 64.16% of the vote and all 60 elected seats (42 by the MMM, 18 by the PSM, and two for the allied Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais) (for more detail see 1982 Legislative Assembly election results). Voter turn-out was 87.3%, with 471 196 out of an electorate of 540 000 casting their votes for the 34 parties contesting 62 seats. The LP, which had dominated Mauritian politics since 1948, won no seats and (together with the Muslim Action Committee) only 25.78% of the vote. The PMSD did even worse, receiving only 7.79% of the vote. The LP and the PMSD each did eventually receive two seats in parliament under the best-loser provisions.

Anerood Jugnauth became Prime Minister for the first time, Boodhoo Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Bérenger Minister of Finance.[11] Jugnauth swept to power in 1982 in a dramatic election in which his MMM-PSM alliance won all seats in the Legislative Assembly. When he took the office, the country was wrecked by chronic unemployment, rapidly rising inflation and the infinite expectations of a volatile and highly politicized electorate. Within months of his election victory, he saw his massive and unassailable majority collapsing before his eyes as his political party tore itself apart through bitter in-fighting over personality and policy. He presided over the country's rapid industrialization. In late 1982, the two party leaders, Harish Boodhoo and Paul Berenger were both wanting absolute power over the Alliance, this led to their break up where the MMM & PSM became apart. Jugnauth who was thinking of a new political strategy was expected to resolve the issue but to everybody's surprise, he let both parties go apart.

With this Paul Berenger begun war by saying that Jugnauth had no right to control the MMM as he was not leader but only a member. This led to internal fights inside the MMM. Jugnauth being Prime Minister announced general elections in 1983 again. This time he was not a Candidate for the MMM but he proposed to Boodhoo of dissolving the PSM to make a new more stronger Party called the MSM (Militant Socialist Movement).He created the MSM and in Alliance with the Mauritian Labor Party went to the general elections together trying to fight against Paul Berenger and his MMM.

Almost from the beginning, the governing alliance was rent by serious differences, partly of a personal nature but also over Bérenger's stringent economic policies and his attempt to make Creole the national language (despite the Indian descent of the majority of the population). In March 1983, the government collapsed when the dominant faction within the MMM [Mouvement Militant Mauricien], led by Bérenger, split from Jugnauth's leadership and resigned from the cabinet.
[edit] 1983 and second tenure as prime minister

In early April 1983, Jugnauth formed a new party, the Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM), which, in May, amalgamated with the PSM led by Boodhoo, and was renamed the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM). However, the new government lacked a majority in the legislative assembly, and Jugnauth was obliged to dissolve the assembly in June. New elections were set for August 1993.Re-elected at the general elections held on 23 August 1983, Jugnauth was re-elected as prime minister The MMM fought the election alone. Jugnauth's MSM formed a new coalition - called the Alliance - with the Labour Party and the PMSD [Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate], the very parties that only a year ago had been ousted from power by the MMM, which was then led by Jugnauth.

The popular vote was very close (for detail see 1983 Legislative Assembly election results). The MMM received 209 845 votes (46.4%) - the highest proportion of the vote ever received by a single party in any Mauritian election. The Alliance received 236 146 votes (52.22%); independents and the Rodrigues parties got the remaining 1.38% and two seats. Of the 552 800 registered voters, 452 221 (81.8%) had voted. When seats were distributed, however, the Alliance held a substantial majority - 46 to the 22 received by the MMM. The disproportionate weighting of seats reflects the fact that MMM votes were concentrated in urban constituencies where large numerical majorities won only three seats, whereas the Alliance swept the rural constituencies where Hindus predominated. The election was a personal victory for Jugnauth and something of a comeback for Duval, who became deputy prime minister, and Ramgoolam, who was named Governor-General shortly after.

Commenting on the MMM's fourteen months in power and the outcome of the 1983 election, Bowman (1991, 87) remarks that Mauritius worked itself "through a tumultuous political period in an orderly, constitutional way, without violence. Prominent leaders left power gracefully and allowed other parties and individuals to accede to leadership roles." And whereas the MMM had been historically viewed as a more radical party than the MLP, once in power it actually provided considerable continuity of leadership.[citation needed]
[edit] 1987 and third tenure

The years following the 1983 elections were marked by an endless succession of intra- and inter-party feuds as well as scandals involving high government members and officials in corruption, fraud and drug trafficking. Within months of taking office, the Alliance began a process of fragmentation that by 1986 left the government without a working majority in parliament. When in February 1984, the MLP [Mauritius Labour Party] left the government, 11 of its MPs continued to support the government and formed a faction within the MLP called the Rassemblement des Travaillistes Mauriciens (RTM). Upon proroguing parliament in November 1986, Jugnauth agreed that an election was necessary.

Parliament was dissolved on 3 July, and the election date set for 30 August 1987, one year ahead of schedule. Campaigning started on 22 July 1987. The campaign was fought intensely but with less bitterness and blatant communal hostility than had been the case in the past. Jugnauth's Alliance fought the election with his MSM [Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien], Duval's MPSD [Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate], and both major factions of the MLP, the one led by Satcam Boolell and the RTM. The MMM allied itself with two small parties, the Mouvement Travailliste Démocrat (RTD) and the Front des Travailleurs Socialiste (FTS). A total of 639 488 voters were registered (approximately 60% of the total population) and of these, 546 623 (85.5%) cast their votes. A total of 359 candidates ran for the 62 elected seats. The ballot, like the electoral campaign, was held in an impassioned atmosphere, but there were no serious incidents. During the election campaign, the ruling MSM/MLP/PMSD alliance was known as the Sun (Soleil) and the opposing Union (composed of MMM/MTD/FTS) as the Heart (Coeur) after their respective emblems.

While overall participation of voters in the polling amounted to 85.5%, it ran up to 93% in some constituencies. The average size of the multimember constituencies was around 30 000. As in previous elections, the MMM and its partners received the highest percentage of votes, 48.12%, of which a small percentage can be attributed to its two small partners (see 1987 Legislative Assembly election results for more detail). It won 21 seats, comprising 19 of the 30 urban seats, and only two of the 30 rural seats. The Alliance (MSM/PMSD/MLP) won a total of 49.86% and 39 seats. After the best-loser seats were allocated, the Alliance held 46 seats to the MMM's 24. The two seats of the Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais helped to raise those of the Alliance to 46. The outcome of the election highlighted an anomaly of the electoral system. A mere 1.7% of the votes cast separated the two political alliances, but in terms of seats the gap was 36.6 percentage points. The opposition called for electoral reforms, but the winning alliance was quite happy with things as they stood. The outcome of the 1991 general election added further impetus to demands for reform.

The MSM had drawn its main support from the Hindu community (52% of the total population), particularly from the numerically dominant Vaishya caste, which included Jugnauth among its members. The MSM was also favoured by the economically dominant Chinese and Franco-Mauritian communities. The MMM's support was concentrated in the Muslim Indian community (17% of the total population), in sections of the Creole community (27%) and in the lower Hindu castes, particularly those of southern Mauritius disaffected with Vaishya dominance in the north. Of the smaller ruling parties, the MLP also represented higher-caste Hindus, while the PMSD was strong in the Creole community. Jugnauth was once more elected with a majority in the Parliament and was once more elected as Prime Minister and took office for his 3rd term

biography of Sir Anerood JUGNAUTH president of MAURITIUS