Mayotte Referendum 2009

The French oversea island of Mayotte will become the 101th department of France in 2011 following a referendum, approved by 95.22% of voters. Mayotte will therefore be a DOM like Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and Réunion.

Mayotte, the fourth island in the French Comoros, rejected independence in 1974 with 65% against. In the three Comoran islands, 95% voted in favour. The Comoran government still claims Mayotte and considers it illegitemately occupied by France. Mayotte was first a territorial collectivity and since 2000 it is a departmental collectivity.

With this massive vote in favour, Mahorans will receive full advantages associated with the status, including the RMI and other financial benefits. However, the 1905 law on separation of church and state will apply to Mayotte and polygamy will be illegalized. For that reason, the only supporters of the NO were imams and prominent Islamists (95% of Mahorans are Sunni Muslims). All political parties in Mayotte supported the YES (any party supporting the NO would have been politically destroyed). However, the PCF in France did not support the YES, saying that the Comoran and AU claims are legitimate.

Mayotte, which has a general council, will remain institutionally similar. Unlike the 4 DOMs, Mayotte will not have a regional council simultaneously to a general council. The 4 other DOMs will probably have the option of choosing such a setup in the near future.

YES 95.22%
NO 4.78%
turnout 61.02%

Montenegro 2009

A parliamentary election was held yesterday in Montenegro, the second since Montenegrin independence in 2006. As expected, the incumbent left-wing pro-European Coalition for a European Montenegro led by (slightly corrupt) Prime Minister Milo Đukanović was easily re-elected.  Montenegro uses d’Hondt proportional representation with a 3% threshold for non-Albanian parties. There are 5 Albanian seats elected separately. There are two Serb coalitions, the Socialist People’s Party (SNP), federalist and pro-European; and the New Serb Democracy, a new party formed by the People’s Party (SNH), the Democratic Serb Party (DSS) and the People’s Socialist Party (NSS), more nationalistic and right-wing (although the NSS is left-wing, the SNH is larger). The Movement for Changes is a centre-right liberal party opposed to Đukanović. It did not support any side in the 2006 referendum, saying that Đukanović (YES) was too ghastly. Many say they supported the NO/Unionist side. Seat numbers for the SNP are compared to the SNP’s 8 seats as part of a coalition with the SNH and DSS (11 seats). New Serb Democracy is compared to Serb List in 2006.

Coalition for a European Montenegro (DPS+SDP) 50.8% winning 47 seats (+6)
Socialist People’s Party 16.1% winning 15 seats (+7)
New Serb Democracy 9.0% winning 8 seats (-4)
Movement for Changes 6.1% winning 5 seats (-6)
Democratic Union of Albanians 1.5% winning 1 seat (-)
FORCA 1.0% winning 1 seat (+1)
Albanian List 0.9% winning 1 seat (-)
Albanian Coalition 0.8% winning 1 seat (+1)

The Liberal Party-Bosniak Party has lost all 3 seats, and the Albanian Alternative did not run.

Of the 5 Albanian seats, the DPS-SDP won 26.9% and 1 seat, the Democratic Union won 22.3% and 1 seat, FORCA won 13.3% and 1 seat, the Coalition won 13% and 1 seat, and the List won 12.3% and 1 seat.

No breakdown of data by municipality, but it will be interesting once such data is available. Map when that’s out.