Against all the odds, the DP candidate in the Mont Fleuri bye-election, Mr. Frank Elizabeth, managed to beat the magic number of 64 votes scored by Ferrari, the incumbent, as a slim majority against the SPPF candidate, Andrew Padayachy, in the 2007 general elections. Elizabeth scored 84 votes out of 696 valid votes cast and thus won 12.1% out of the total votes cast. Political observers have opined that a score of less than 64 votes would have been a disaster for DP, as it would have meant that the party is politically irrelevant. There were 8 spoilt votes out of a total of 704 cast. The election which was hurriedly put together by the Electoral Commissioner, Hendrick Gappy, after Ferrari unexpectedly resigned from Parliament on June 24th, left the Democratic Party with only three weeks to identify and field a suitable candidate and launched its official campaign in the district. As such, many predicted a score of less than 50 votes for the Democratic Party.
The bye-election at Mont Fleuri was arguably no ordinary election by any stretch of the imagination. It also left a lot of questions unanswered. The SPPF boycotted the election and Albert Rene dubbed it a “farce”. He called upon all SPPF voters in the district not to vote but to go shopping instead. As a result, not only did the SPPF voters not turned up to cast their ballots, but surprisingly, 500 opposition voters who voted for Ferrari in the 2007 general elections, also failed to turn up at the polls. In all only 700 voters living in Mont Fleuri cast their ballots out of 2622 who voted in 2007, representing a mere 26% of the electorate. Four persons from the inner and outer islands voted, making a total of 704 votes.
The questions which remain unanswered are as follows: Would the 500 opposition voters who failed to turn up this time around, have voted for Ferrari if they have been allowed to vote freely? Are there 500 opposition voters working as civil servants in the Mont Fleuri constituency? Did some of the 500 opposition voters, who failed to turn up at the polls, do so as a protest at the resignation of Ferrari? Would they have voted for DP had they been allowed to cast their ballots freely without fear of intimidation or victimization? Would the 1060 SPPF voters who voted in the 2007 general elections voted for the Democratic Party, had they been allowed to exercise their right to vote freely? Finally, what would be the outcome of the next general elections if all three political parties participate?
All things considered, it is reasonable to assume that had the Democratic Party, participated in the 2007 polls on its own ticket, Ferrari would have lost his slim majority of 64 votes to SPPF, which would have easily won the district. The same argument can be put forward for the Les Mamelles and Bel Ombre districts where the SNP majority were negligible; 4 and 14 votes respectively. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the Mont Fleuri bye-election, it is that unless the opposition parties unite to fight the SPPF at every election, they will both fare badly against the mighty SPPF. As for Ferrari, he did not win anything more than what he had previously as the seat was his in the first place. However, if he intends to use his re-election at Mont Fleuri with 87.9% of the total votes cast in his favour, to position himself for an ultimate leadership challenge against Ramkalawan, assuming the latter fails in his expected bid for the Presidency in 2011, then he can use the results as justification for his own bid to lead the party. In any event, the SNP did not take any chances in the bye-election and threw all their resources behind Ferrari to ensure an emphatic win, as anything else would have spelt catastrophe for the party. All their MNAs, and Executive Committee Members were seen campaigning and ferrying people to vote in about twenty vehicles which swarmed the Mont Fleuri district on 19th July.
Generous incentives were also being offered to people to come out of the woodworks to vote. They will certainly feel the financial strain in the upcoming general and presidential elections as all indications are that they did indeed break the bank to guarantee a win at Mont Fleuri. The only question which lingers on is thus: Was Rene justified in calling upon his supporters to boycott the bye-election at Mont Fleuri? If he really wanted to get rid of Ferrari, then his call not to come down and vote paradoxically had the opposite effect. Would James Michel have done the same thing as Rene? The answer is maybe not. The result can therefore be said to have left a bitter taste in the mouth of all SPPF supporters at Mont Fleuri who have expressed disappointment at the decision taken by their leader.