# Independence Party Alliance Formed (1966)

URL: https://allhistories.com/mauritius/timeline/1966-independence-party-alliance-formed
Location: Port Louis, Mauritius
Themes: main-event

After the Lancaster House conference, the decision on independence was left to the next general election. The three parties that had supported independence or accepted it, Ramgoolam's Labour Party, Sookdeo Bissoondoyal's Independent Forward Bloc and Abdool Razack Mohamed's Comité d'Action Musulman, needed a joint platform against the PMSD, which campaigned for association with Britain and drew support from Franco-Mauritians, Creoles and Sino-Mauritians. In 1966 the three parties formed an electoral coalition, the Independence Party (Parti de l'Indépendance), led jointly by Ramgoolam, Bissoondoyal and Mohamed. The same year a British electoral commission upheld the arrangements decided in 1965: twenty three-member constituencies on the island of Mauritius, a two-member constituency for Rodrigues, and eight 'best loser' seats allocated after each election to under-represented communities. The best loser system, long advocated by Mohamed, was intended to reassure minorities, while the multi-member constituencies encouraged parties to field candidates from several communities. The Independence Party won the decisive election of August 1967 and led Mauritius to independence. The coalition loosened after 1969, when the IFB left the government, but Labour and the CAM kept the name until 1976. The constituency boundaries and best loser system devised in 1966 are still in use. At this point in the timeline (1966), the Queen of the United Kingdom was Elizabeth II (6 February 1952 – 12 March 1968 (as sovereign of British Mauritius)); the Governor of Mauritius was Sir John Shaw Rennie (17 September 1962 – 12 March 1968). Government: the Premier of Mauritius was Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (1964 – 1967).

## Why it matters
It created the alliance and electoral system under which independence was won.

Ruler at the Time: [Elizabeth II](https://allhistories.com/mauritius/rulers/elizabeth-ii-uk)

Governor of Mauritius: Sir John Shaw Rennie
Premier of Mauritius: Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (Labour Party (PTr))

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Independence Party (Mauritius)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Party_(Mauritius))
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Mauritius independence](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Mauritius+independence)
- [Wikipedia — Best Loser System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Loser_System)
- [Electoral Commissioner's Office, Mauritius](https://electoral.govmu.org/)
- [Wikipedia — The Road To Independence (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mauritius)