NEED TO KNOW
Who’s Listening?
MAURITIUS
Recordings of conversations between journalists, politicians, civil society leaders, foreign diplomats, and others have been made public recently in Mauritius, triggering a scandal just weeks before voters go to the polls on Nov. 10 to elect a new parliament.
One leak involved the police commissioner apparently asking a forensic doctor to alter a report on a person who died after being beaten in police custody.
The partially state-owned Mauritius Telecom denied involvement in the eavesdropping. Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and security forces claimed the unknown leakers used artificial intelligence to manipulate the conversations, reported Firstpost. But critics believed Jugnauth and his allies were trying to distract citizens from noticing that the recordings were likely from government surveillance operations.
“As Mauritius is heading into legislative elections, RSF is concerned about these leaks, which point to a system of widespread wiretapping that does not spare media professionals,” said Sadibou Marong, director of Reporters Without Borders’ Sub-Saharan Africa Desk. “The authorities cannot hide behind their artificial intelligence argument to cover up this major scandal. We call for an independent inquiry to identify those responsible for the wiretapping.”
The scandal could affect Jugnauth’s fortunes in the ballot box because it feeds perceptions that he has compromised the country’s democracy to retain power.
As Reuters explained, the prime minister assumed power in Mauritius in 2017 when his father stepped down from the same position. He then ran for reelection under his ruling Militant Socialist Movement political party in 2019 by promising fairer wealth distribution in the prosperous Indian Ocean country, an island that bills itself as African and Asian.
Despite the country’s thriving financial sector, Jugnauth apparently failed to fulfill his promises, if riots ignited by skyrocketing living costs in 2022 were any indication of the people’s sentiments. Those violent protests are why religious leaders in Mauritius have called for peace ahead of the vote, as the Association for Catholic Information in Africa noted.
Opposition figures challenged his victory in 2019 in court but failed to prove their claims that the prime minister won through bribery and influence peddling. Today, the same opposition figures are claiming that Jugnauth and his allied political parties have sanctioned nepotism and corruption.
Jugnauth will still likely win reelection but his margin will probably be smaller, predicted Fitch Solutions.
His successful completion of negotiations with the United Kingdom to regain sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, closing the book on colonization in the country, is one reason many voters might support him, India Today added. That agreement keeps the American-British military base on the island of Diego Garcia for 99 more years, but fulfills a long dream for the territory to be returned.
Still, on Friday, the government moved to block access to social media until after the election, setting off a furor.
The government said the restrictions were necessary to preserve national security and integrity, following the publication of “certain” audio clips, Al Jazeera reported. The opposition responded that it was a political move aimed at avoiding defeat in the election.
It’s likely that the opposition isn’t wrong but the move might backfire on the incumbents anyway because voters are focused on the scandals, Mauritius-based political analyst Jocelyn Chan Low told Reuters: “There is a popular outcry on many alleged scandals which are still unsolved and which have been the focus of these leaks.”
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