The MSM-ML divide: Collendavelloo should break the alliance
All indications are out there that an election will take place at the constituency No 18, on 17 décembre 2017, but what is the MSM-ML thinking for this election amid pressure for it to buck-off and call for a snap general election instead?
WFTV sources have this to say:
- The MSM-ML is now a divided lot, with many issues pending among them that has pushed the ML to rethink its strategic alliance with the MSM
- There may not be a by-election come this December
- The MSM-ML will definitely not participate in the by-election for fear they will be trashed (as it is expected indeed)
- The PM may call for snap-polls early next year
The meeting yesterday between the two leaders of the MSM-ML Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and Ivan Collendaveloo was probably not only about the issues surrounding the deteriorating situation at Air Mauritius.
Between the MSM-ML there are also the issue of the ML offering its support to the MMM in the No 18 by-elections. Yes, the MMM rejected the offer but trust WFTv, the MMM will need all the support they can get to make a major impact in the by-election.
The MSM would also have no choice but to support one of the parties in the polls, unless they decide to sit on the fence and watch the other parties tear themselves apart, which would be the right strategy to adopt.
They cannot support the Labour Party due to the bad-blood between the Ramgoolam and the Jugnauth families. This bad blood exists since Sir Aneerood Jugnauth left the Labour Party led government after the independence of Mauritius.
The MSM will not support Roshi Badhain’s Reform Party, as it is a splinter party from the MSM itself and there has been serious blows between Mr Badhain and the Prime Minister since then.
The ML altogether will not give its support to the Reform Party, fearing that this party may encroach on its electorate – or of what is left of it – in future polls thus decimating the ML.
But the ML still has a chance to rewrite history.
It is in this context that the ML has departed itself from the MSM by publicly offering its support to the MMM. The idea is that the MMM would garner more support against the Labour Party and the PMSD and win the polls with the support of the ML. The ML intends to drag the remaining MSM supporters to vote for the MMM, without the MSM opposing or supporting this stance.
Leave the MSM alliance
Nevertheless, the ML can still change the course of history and put Mauritius back on the railings of success, unity and harmony.
It just have to quit this rotten alliance and sit in the opposition, thus forcing a general election in the country. By doing so, it will get the support of many Mauritians who are waiting for a sort of ‘revolt’ against this bogus regime in power.
If the ML wants to regain the support it earned in the 2014 polls when its members slammed the door on Paul Berenger for his wrongful alliance with the Labour Party, it has to simply leave the MSM in power. By breaking this alliance, it will become a potential partner in a future alliance.
Since it has no bad blood with either the MMM, PMSD or the Reform Party and the Labour Party, it will have the opportunity to cook an alliance with one of these parties with the promises that it is given a role to play in the next regime.
The ball is actually in the camp of Mr Collendavelloo. If the Minister still has his ‘militant’ shawl around his neck reminding him of his hay-days as a ‘militant coaltar’, he will listen to the hearts of the Mauritian people and not that of a struggling PM!
In that case, an MMM-ML alliance would be the right strategy for both Berenger and Collendavelloo. But it will all depend on the ego of Berenger to accept the fact that his MMM – though still a powerful electoral machinery – is not the same anymore and Collendavelloo would have to be given another chance.