Le rapport de l’Electoral Boundaries Commission sera soumis à l’approbation de l’Assemblée nationale aujourd’hui. Pour rappel, Rama Sithanen avait soumis une longue analyse de la situation à l’instance lorsque les consultations en amont étaient en cours. Ci-dessous ses conclusions :

«The argument that constituencies should have more or less the same population/electors number has impeccable democratic credentials. However, there are countervailing factors that must be acknowledged. Many countries, especially multi-cultural and multi-ethnic ones, with similar electoral systems to ours, accept the consideration of effective representation and allow for deviations from the population or electors quota as they contribute to the better government of the people as a whole. Landmark court judgements have supported such derogations even when the Constitution enshrines the principle of equality of voters. Our own history shows that such countervailing factors have been recognised and there have been accommodation to the FPTP formula for the sake of equity, inclusiveness, and participation.

Ultimately, the EBC faces a difficult choice. Either it operates within the given constraints and proposes changes to lower the ratio between the two largest and the two smallest constituencies while keeping the deviation still very large in many ridings. In which case, it could prove very difficult for the EBC to justify such huge remaining variances from the population quota on the basis of ‘means of communication, geographical features, density of population and the boundaries of administrative areas’ only . Or it takes the bull by the horn and recommends a more informed redistricting based on the twin principles of voter equality and effective representation as embraced by some deeply democratic countries as Canada. The innovative proposals have the benefits of being open, transparent and objective. They could be the solution until we have an electoral reform that reshuffles the cards in a fair and inclusive manner.»