President of Mauritius

The President of Mauritius is the head of State of Mauritius and all its Dependencies. He is also the commander-in-chief.He is the de facto sovereign of Mauritius as the Office is considered to be the sovereignty of the Republic. As per the constitution based on the Act 6 section 58 part 1, the executive authority of Mauritius is vested in the President.The President is the Republic, this is the seal of the office.

The president is elected by the National Assembly for term of five years; it is a largely ceremonial position. It is the highest ranking position and he or she is the highest paid civil servant, however the actual executive is the prime minister. The position was created in 1992 after Mauritius was declared a republic. It replaced the previous role of the Governors General, representative of the monarch. Being the head of state, the person accessing to the post cannot be appointed but is normally sworn to power by the constitution. It stipulates them to swear to fight for the country and also to honour the position. The president has the power to appoint the prime minister. The official residence is at the Château of Réduit which is found in Réduit.

The Constitution also says that the President shall be elected by the Assembly on a motion made by the Prime Minister and supported by the votes of a majority of all the members of the Assembly; and subject to this section and section 30, hold office for a term of 5 years and shall be eligible for re-election. The motion is not the subject matter of a debate in the Assembly.

The president precedes over all governmental position in the country.He/she is chosen out of qualifications and also is it seen that the country's all cultures must be represented by him or her.This is done by electing presidents of different religious and cultural background from the preceded one.

The President is the head of state as well lord governor of the all five principalities of the Country. He enjoys mostly legislative and ceremonial powers as most of the executive bills in parliament is held by the Prime Minister's office.

The longest serving President is Cassam Uteem, who served for 9 years. The shortest serving President is Angidi Chettiar who was President for only 3 days from 15 February 2002 to 18 February 2002 due to his sudden resignation.

Kailash Purryag who has been speaker of the National Assembly of Mauritius since 2005 has been elected as the 5th President of the Republic and has taken office on July 21st, 2012. He is therefore succeeding to Sir Anerood Jugnauth, who spent 9 years as President from 2003 before resigning in 2012.