Labour-MMM Alliance 2014

The Labour-MMM alliance was successfully concluded because the “power sharing” agreement between the two leaders, Paul Bérenger and Navin Ramgoolam, was to their mutual satisfaction.  At least on paper both of them look happy.  They are expecting that in the first 3 months after the elections, Navin will become the first president of a new Republic of Mauritius and his partner will become the Prime Minister.  After the 1982 elections, I remember Paul insisted for a “gestion collégiale”. Everytime SAJ appeared on the TV at that time, he would say “Moi comme Premier Ministre”… then one day I asked him why he repeated that phrase, since everyone knew he was the Prime Minister.  He replied to me, saying “Mo fer Paul konpran”.
SAJ refused to delegate his prime ministerial powers. While travelling in his car, the latter once told me that after a few months only, the MMM/PSM Government had become too difficult to govern.  He told me that he preferred to return the power to the people and go for fresh elections.
I insisted not to do that as the Militants had suffered a lot between 1969-1982 and that he must have more patience. Saj said “si mo pa pran pasyans mo kas gouvernman tou le zour”. Still the MMM/PSM government survived for only 9 months and on 22/03/1983 the MSM party was launched at Vacoas.
Regarding the 2015 elections, it is clear that the three leaders are looking for best deals just like in business.  And any two parties out of the three had to conclude and so has happened.  When we look back since 1967, only alliances like Labour, IFB and CAM have won the elections.  So none of the leaders want to take risks because the MMM, being the largest party, has been voted up to 48% in 1983 but still lacked the 5 cent coin to complete the rupee as S.G.Duval had said.
On 12/06/1982, I was among the agents at Rivière du Rempart Government School while counting was being carried out and the first partial results were announced. I told SAJ that Mauritius was heading towards a 60-0 for the first time.  He asked how I could make such a prognostic.  The answer was that out of 100 votes only 51 are important and if this tendency was maintained in all the constituencies we were leading to the above result.
In all elections in the past, there has been a senior partner and a junior partner like 45/15 or 35/25.  For the first time it is 30/30.
Both leaders are expecting to win a 60-0.  But in politics, Arvin told me one day, 1+1 is not equal to 2.  Actually Paul and Navin are proudly anticipating the above results and every time they open their mouths they are losing thousands of votes in favour of the MSM alliance.
I agree with Paul that today his hair has gone completely white and he has more patience than 1982 or 2005.  But he used to “sap lor kal”. His anger can again disrupt everything.  Several people have rightly said that power cannot be shared but it can be delegated to some extent, just like in 2003, SAJ resigned from the post of Prime Minister to allow Paul to step in.  This alliance was one of the most respected alliances.  In 2005 when Labour won the elections, Paul announced on TV that he would resign the following day.  I admired his democratic principles.