This is Navin Ramgoolam

There are a lot of questions Mauritians, especially Millenials like myself will be asking themselves tomorrow as they vote. I won't be able to vote tomorrow, but I deeply wish I could, because as disillusioned as I am with politicians, the coming elections may mark the start of a darker period of Mauritian history.

I'm going to start by saying outright that I don't like Navin Ramgoolam. He's a thug, a bully and has a sense of self-importance that rivals that of past African dictators. I can't think of a single politican who isn't corrupt or self serving but Ramgoolam isn't just that, he's a danger to the country.

This is the man who had his political opponent, arrested for sedition because he called the government a "pedophile government" after the cover-up of a teacher's affair with a student.

This is the man so arrogant that he openly boasts about giving his friends public land leases.

This is the man who gave his mistress important government contracts and allowed police officers to assault a photographer who dared to take a picture of said mistress.

This is the man who had his mistress's husband thrown in jail just to harass him.

This is the man who had journalists arrested for the first time in 13 years and started his infamous string of arresting even more journalists for "broadcasting false news." 

This is the man who has relentlessly used the police force in Mauritius as his personal guards, arresting people he didn't like and harassing his political opponents.

This is the man who wants you to give him even more power, a seven term presidency and immunity from prosecution, even knowing and seeing all that he's done.

He's had ten consecutive years to fix the country's woes and after two terms as Prime Minister, what does he have to show for it? 

Our infrasture is so bad that several regions of the country don't have running water. Our newly built roads are crumbling. Our new graduates sit unemployed while diploma mills run by "friends" of the prime minister flourish. If he hasn't fixed or even attempted to fix any of those things in 10 years, why do you think he will in the next five?

Or maybe you don't like Ramgoolam either. Maybe you're voting for the Ptr/MMM alliance because you want Berenger to be Prime Minister...

Are you really that naive? Do you honestly believe that there's still at this point any chance of that happening? 

Even if we ignore Ramgoolam's recent description of Berenger as a fish he managed to bait, in which universe is a megalomaniac like Ramgoolam about to cede command to Berenger? If he doesn't discard Berenger after using him, the next five years are going to be a humiliating exercise where the members of the MMM are constantly going to play second fiddle to members of the Labour party.

You don't have to trust Berenger just because he's the leader of the party you identify with. He's fallible, like the rest of us, not a god who always makes the right choice. He can be wrong and in this case, he definitely made the wrong choice by trusting Ramgoolam.

If I were in Mauritius, I would vote for Lepep simply because I think Ramgoolam is a far worse choice that any other. 

What are you voting for?

Berenger as Prime Minister? We both know that will never happen.

Do you think anyone can be worse than Ramgoolam? He's put the country well on the way to a Banana Republic in the last ten years. Give him five more and he will do it.

Let's say you're still undecided, maybe you don't have strong feelings about either alliance. 

Do you think that any person should be allowed for rule for fifteen consecutive years? Because I certainly don't. No one man should be given too much power. He's had the country for two terms, it's high time we had a change of government.