• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Christina Meetoo

On Media, Society and Mauritius

  • About me
  • My research and publications

duval

Pre-electoral communications: the kick-off

04/04/2010 By christina 4 Comments

Why was there such a shortage of April’s Fool Jokes this year in Mauritius? Who’s the culprit?

Answer: The Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam.
He chose to announce dissolution of the national assembly on 31st March so that all the media people (and everyone interested even remotely about local news) were intent on covering and discussing the upcoming general elections.

Surprise Number 1: Elections are scheduled for 5th May, i.e. one day before the UK elections. On 3rd March, the PM had stated that the elections would take place after the UK elections (see articles in L’express and in Le Défi Plus).

Surprise Number 2: The Labour Party is partnering with the ‘loyal’ opposition party MSM and keeping PMSD (already in its governing Social Alliance). Only a few weeks before, the possibility of an alliance of the Labour Party with the ‘momentarily loyal’ opposition party MMM, was still making the news (see L’express and Le Mauricien)

Spinning the communication
The first announcement was made around 7.30 p.m. by Ramgoolam at the Treasury Building. It was initially scheduled for 7 p.m. but started later, officially because the Camp Thorel inauguration was delayed (by the organisation of photo shoots with Pravind Jugnauth?). Admittedly, it looks like this was done deliberately to keep the journalists on their toes and especially to coincide with the peak news bulletin on the MBC TV. The TV station’s director, Dan Callikhan, is also the communication mastermind for the PM (he was formerly communication adviser at PMO).

I could personally sense that the speech had been written and formatted by a communication person. Although the PM delivered quite well, he did not re-appropriate the speech to make it his own as he repeatedly looked at his paper to deliver. The key words ‘Unité’, ‘Egalité’ and ‘Modernité’ are apparently taken from his previous campaign, yet their utterance did not quite sound convincing enough for me but I can imagine that people were impressed by the simplicity and strength of the concepts. To his credit, the PM appeared quiet, calm and serene during the address.

Obviously, one would have to adopt a comparative approach. If other contenders are similar or less good, Ramgoolam is likely to come through as a great communicator and leader. Staunch partisans will celebrate the wonderful communication skills of the PM whereas staunch opponents will have a completely opposite reading. As did the MMM leader Paul Bérenger who interpreted the PM’s body language as utter panic and used foul language to describe the situation.

Duval’s face reveals discontent
As for the second announcement, it was made at around 8.30 p.m. at the Labourdonnais Hotel. Navin Ramgoolam spoke first, followed by DPM Rashid Beebeejaun, VPM Xavier Luc Duval and finally MSM leader Pravind Jugnauth. Again, the PM kept reading from his prepared speech but did reasonably well. Beebeejaun was obviously happy and delivered naturally his speech but Duval pulled a long face during his speech. There was a shot during Jugnauth’s speech which was quite telling: Duval was looking very glum and seemed to force himself to nod at each emphatic declaration of Jugnauth. The ticket allocation did not seem to make him happy of course (8 for his party). Jugnauth, who had never struck me as a very charismatic speaker, was the most comfortable and natural of all in his speech delivery, presumably as he was feeling elated at having secured 18 tickets in the alliance.

Of course, none of them said anything significant beyond the to-be-expected simplistic rationales for the alliance. You wouldn’t expect that, would you?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: beebeejaun, duval, elections, jugnauth, Mauritius, ramgoolam, spin

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent Posts

  • Démocratie augmentée pour une transition écologique juste
  • On the subject of Media Regulation in Mauritius
  • A Supreme Court Judgement deems the offence of causing annoyance in the ICT Act to be “hopelessly vague”
  • My final submission to the ICTA on its proposed amendments to the ICT Act
  • The proposed amendments to the ICT Act to regulate social media in democratic Mauritius entail the risk of creating a surveillance state

Recent Comments

  • christina on Discovering the beauty of Rodrigues
  • Eddy Young on Discovering the beauty of Rodrigues
  • IFEX Africa Brief (May 2021): Visions of press freedom obscured, LGBTQI+ rights falter, an icon tells her story - iSPEAK on My final submission to the ICTA on its proposed amendments to the ICT Act
  • The proposed amendments to the ICT Act to regulate social media in democratic Mauritius entail the risk of creating a surveillance state on My final submission to the ICTA on its proposed amendments to the ICT Act
  • The Gender Divides of the Mauritian Society: Re-appropriating the Empowerment and Citizenship Discourse | Wits Journalism on The Gender Divides of the Mauritian Society: Re-appropriating the Empowerment and Citizenship Discourse (Publication)

Archives

  • June 2022
  • November 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • March 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • March 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • April 2014
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • October 2012
  • August 2011
  • September 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • September 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Sample On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in