Section 254: Failure of prospective candidate to state his community on nomination

254. Failure of prospective candidate to state his community on nomination paper—11 candidates’ nomination papers were declared invalid and rejected by Returning Officers as they had failed to make a declaration on their forms as to which communities they belonged to. Following an application made to Couirt, the Judge, in Narrain and others v The Electoral Commissioner and others (2005) SCJ 159, ordered that the nomination papers be accepted. The plaintiff alleged that this decision both violated and altered the Constitution as it rendered paragraph 5 on the First Schedule to the Constitution inoperative. The plaintiff also argued that, should candidates be allowed to stand for elections without designating their community, the allocation of the eight additional seats would be difficult should any of the candidates obtain sufficient number of votes to secure seats. HELD it is mandatory for a prospective general election candidate to declare and indicate in writing which community he belongs to. If a prospective candidate does not appear from his way of life to belong to the Hindu, Muslim or Sino-Mauritian community, he will be deemed to belong to the General Population. The sanction imposed on a candidate who does not declare CON – 235 [Issue 1] The Constitution his community is the invalidation of his nomination paper by the Returning Officer. The declaration is at the heart of the best loser system enshrined in the First Schedule as the allocation of the eight additional seats is to ensure a fair and adequate representation of the four communities. Electoral Supervisory Commission v Honourable Attorney-General (2005). I. Qualifications I. Candidates