3 MMM MPs Demand Government Backbench Seats to End Parliamentary Seating Feud

Paul Bérenger, leader of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), has formally requested that he and two party colleagues be seated as government backbenchers, sparking a constitutional debate over parliamentary seating arrangements.

In a letter addressed to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra, Mr Bérenger requested that he, Joanna Bérenger, and Chetan Baboolall be moved from the opposition benches.

The move follows a formal contestation by Opposition Whip Adrien Duval regarding the trio’s current placement.

Constitutional Justification

Paul Bérenger defended the request by stating that the three deputies remain members of a party within the governing coalition.

He maintained that the proposed seating shift is “consistent with both the Constitution and established parliamentary practices.”

The MMM leader’s intervention comes as a direct response to concerns raised by Mr Duval, who questioned the regularity of MMM members sitting behind the Leader of the Opposition while maintaining their party status.

Mr Duval argued that such a configuration is “irregular” and “incompatible with constitutional principles.”

Strategic Absence

Despite the formal demand for new seating, the three MMM deputies will not attend Tuesday’s, 7 April, parliamentary session.

Mr Bérenger noted that this decision was made to avoid “embarrassing” the Speaker while “imminent political developments” unfold.

The dispute highlights a growing friction over the “seating arrangement” within the Chamber, as the Assembly awaits a final ruling on whether the deputies can legally occupy the government backbenches under the current political climate.

Formal letter to the Assembly Speaker:

Madam Speaker, I write further to the letter addressed to you today by the Honourable Adrien Charles Duval, Opposition Whip, concerning the seating arrangements proposed by myself and my two colleagues, Honourable Joanna Bérenger and Honourable Chetan Baboolall, for tomorrow’s sitting.

I wish to place on record a number of clarifications which I respectfully submit for your consideration. First, and most fundamentally: neither I nor my two colleagues have resigned from, been expelled from, or been suspended by the Mouvement Militant Mauricien.

The Honourable Opposition Whip’s letter proceeds on a premise that is, in important respects, beside the point. The question of whether Members of a governing party who have left that party may sit on the Opposition benches does not arise here, because no such departure has taken place. We remain, in full standing, Members of the Mмм.

Second, it follows that we do not seek to sit on the Opposition benches. What we seek is to sit on the backbenches of the majority side of the House. This is an entirely different proposition from that which the Honourable Opposition Whip has described, and his objections, however forcefully stated, do not speak to it.

A governing party’s Members are not obliged to sit in a single block immediately behind Ministers; the backbenches of the majority have always accommodated Members whose political position, for whatever reason, requires some distance from the front benches.

Third, this arrangement is explicitly understood to be provisional. The MMM has not yet arrived at a final and valid resolution of its position regarding continued participation in the Government.

Until such a resolution is validly reached through the party’s proper internal processes, it would be premature, and indeed improper, for any of us to take an irreversible step in either direction. Our sitting on the Government backbenches reflects this transitional political reality. It is a posture of restraint, not of ambiguity.

Fourth, I wish to address the question of the Whip. The Honourable Opposition Whip has no standing to speak to our seating arrangements, as we do not fall within his remit.

The mandate of the Government Whip over us remains unchanged. Our physical repositioning to the backbenches does not affect the formal parliamentary structures governing party discipline within the majority.

It would therefore be in order for you, Madam Speaker, to allocate, as previously agreed, seats on the Government backbenches to myself and my two colleagues, in recognition that we remain at this stage Members of a party forming part of the Government coalition, and that the arrangement proposed is consistent with both the Constitution and established parliamentary practice.

However, in order not to embarrass you and pending imminent political developments, we shall not be present at the National Assembly tomorrow.

Source: Defi Media