THOUSANDS of Mauritians took to the streets to celebrate the landslide victory of the opposition alliance, which could result in a first non-Hindu prime minister for the Indian Ocean island. Electoral Commissioner Irsam Rahman said the alliance between the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) and the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM) had won 54 of the 62 seats in parliament in the general election. The outgoing Labour Party-led coalition won six, and a tiny party from the neighbouring Rodriques island won two seats. In a pre-election pact, it was agreed that in the event of victory, MSM chief Sir Anerood Jugnauth, a Hindu, would serve as prime minister for the first three years, after which parliament would appoint him president. MMM leader Paul Berenger, a Franco-Mauritian, would then become the nation’s first non-Hindu leader since independence from Britain in 1968. Once it was clear the opposition had won, shops in the capital, Port Louis, closed and thousands of people sped around in cars and on motorbikes waving the purple and white banners of the alliance. Small businessman Mookaess Ramesser said people had voted for the opposition because when Jugnauth was prime minister from 1982-95, 500 rupees would buy vegtables for a week. Today, the same amount will fill the basket for only three days, he said. Jugnauth told supporters that the alliance would bolster the economy and create jobs, building the country up again so that even the outside world would notice. Ramgoolam, son of the first leader of independent Mauritisu, the late Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, was elected in 1995. His government’s five-year term was due to end in December, but he dissolved parliament and called early elections on August 11. Uninhabited before Portuguese and Dutch settlers arrived in the 1500s with African slaves, Mauritius is a “rainbow society” of Hindus, Muslims, Creoles, Africans, Chinese and Franco-Mauritians.