§ Mr. Julius Silvermanasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what action he proposes to take, in view of the doubts which have arisen in Mauritius about the 1959 elections to the Legislative Assembly.
§ Mr. Frederick LeeAn Order in Council entitled the Mauritius (Former Legislative Council) Order, 1966, has been made today providing that the fact that the forty electoral districts established for the purposes of the 1958 Constitution of Mauritius were situated wholly in the island of Mauritius shall not be held to have affected the validity of the elections and the Legislative Councils under that Constitution or anything done by those Councils or their Members.
It was never the intention that the island of Rodrigues and the other dependencies of Mauritius should be included in the electoral districts established under the 1958 Constitution, nor have they in fact been included in the electoral districts established under the present Constitution granted in 1964. This Order prevents the 1958 Constitution from being 371W construed in a contrary sense. The new Constitution for Mauritius made today provides for elections to be held for Rodrigues as well as in the island of Mauritius.