Navin Ramgoolam, set for a third stint as prime minister of Mauritius after a landslide election victory, is a veteran politician who has been dogged by controversy in the past.
The 77-year-old — who boasts a political career spanning more than three decades — is a member of one of the dynasties that have dominated the leadership of Mauritius since it gained independence from Britain in 1968.
His father Seewoosagur Ramgoolam led Mauritius to independence and is regarded as the founding father of the Indian Ocean island nation, serving as the first head of government until 1982.
Navin Ramgoolam is the longtime leader of the Labour Party and has served twice before as prime minister, between 1995 and 2000 and again from 2005 to 2014.
The decisive legislative election win for the Labour-led Alliance of Change will put him back at the helm after 10 years out in the political wilderness.
“Navin Ramgoolam’s comeback is much more than a political victory: it is a lesson in perseverance and resilience,” said an editorial in L’Express, one of the main newspapers in Mauritius.
“He returns to bring together, to mend a fractured country. On this island torn between economic crises and political divisions, he wants to be the unifier.”
During the campaign, Ramgoolam charged that Mauritius, regarded as one of the most stable and wealthiest democracies in Africa, had been taken over by a group of “mafiosi”.
“They act as if Mauritius belonged to them and interfere in institutions,” he said.
His promises of change resonated with an electorate concerned about political and economic stability, with many facing a cost-of-living crisis.
“The priority of a possible Alliance of Change government is the restoration of democracy, the revival of the economy, the reduction in the cost of living, the fight against drugs,” he said during the campaign.
Ramgoolam started out in medicine, qualifying as a doctor in the 1970s and working in Ireland and Britain as well as his home country.
During that time, in 1978, he was arrested for drunk driving, pleaded guilty and was fined, according to UK Foreign Office documents cited by Mauritian media.
In the 1990s Ramgoolam switched to law in the UK, and also embarked on his political career, becoming leader of the Labour Party in Mauritius.
After his two tenures as premier, he suffered defeat at the ballot box in 2014 and again in 2019.
He lost in 2019 to Pravind Jugnauth, the man he later vanquished in Sunday’s poll.
Two months after his December 2014 election loss to Jugnauth’s father Anerood Jugnauth, Ramgoolam was arrested on charges including conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and money laundering, but has never been convicted.
He has denounced the accusations against him as the “politics of revenge”.