MOSCOW, Oct 4 (Bernama-Sputnik) -- The Mauritian Presidency has dissolved the parliament and scheduled new elections for November 10 amid the island nation's newly obtained sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, reported Sputnik quoting media reports on Friday.
On Thursday, the UK government announced that it was yielding the sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, its last African colony, to Mauritius. In a joint statement, the two countries said the deal took two years to negotiate and was facilitated by India and the United States.
"The President of the Republic ... has set October 22 as the day for the nomination of candidates and November 10 as the day for voting," the office of the Mauritian president said in a statement quoted by Le Mauricien news website.
The UK established colonial rule over both Mauritius and the Chagos Islands in 1845. Mauritius gained independence in 1968, but Chagos remained a British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean. In 1966, London granted the US a 50-year lease of the largest Chagos island, Diego Garcia, to use as a military base. In 2016 the lease was extended until 2036.
Mauritius has for decades challenged UK sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, but it was not until 2019 that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution telling the UK to give up the islands.
--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK
