OPPOSITION HEADS FOR VICTORY

An opposition alliance in Mauritius appears headed for a landslide victory in the general elections according to early results released on Tuesday. With about one third of the votes counted, the alliance looks poised to sweep all 60 of the National Assembly seats being contested. The race is chiefly between an alliance of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam’s Labour Party and Xavier-Luc Duval’s Mauritian Party; and an opposition alliance of former Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth’s Socialist Militant Party and Paul Berenger’s Militant Movement.At stake is control of a small but prosperous economy. Jugnauth and Berenger and widely credited with transforming Mauritius in the 1980s from a sleepy backwater- known chiefly for sugar and tourism – into a modern manufacturing centre which is fast emerging as a financial services base.