Presidential election 2015 |27 November 2015

44 names on supplemental voter list

Forty-four names will appear on a supplemental voter list after the Electoral Commission found out that there were anomalies in the database.

The decision was taken last night after the Electoral Commission met representatives of the presidential candidates taking part in the December 3-5 election. All the representatives agreed that the voters coming from different electoral areas should not be disenfranchised and should be allowed to vote.

Speaking to the media at the electoral commission headquarters at the National Library, Electoral Commission chairman Hendrick Gappy said following the certification of the register on Nomination Day and its delivery to representatives of the presidential candidates, the Electoral Commission found out that there were 44 anomalies in the database.

They include five first time applications whose names were processed but do not appear on the register; nine new applicants whose names appear on the register but are in the wrong electoral area; 14 transfer applicants whose applications were processed but whose names appear on the register but not in their transferred electoral area; 14 applications to make corrections of the applicants’ surname whose applications were processed, and whose names appear on the register but for which corrections were not made in the register; two applications to make correction of the applicants’ surnames whose corrected surnames appear on the register but whose names appear blank on the register; and two obsolete entries to be removed from the register.

The two obsolete entries concern two elderly persons who are aged 111+ years but they could not be traced. They were born in Seychelles, did not travel overseas and no one in the electoral areas they have registered knows them.

 “Since we found out about those issues we have been proactive and this week we filed a case with the court requesting a legal opinion. The court met today (yesterday) and dismissed the case on the ground that there were no legal provisions for the court to deal with the matter given that the register was closed. As nothing could be done from the court’s side, it was proposed by the court that the Electoral Commission reviews the case with the political parties and the representatives of the candidates so that a consensus can be made and if not we should go ahead as is,” said Mr Gappy.

He added: “I’m happy to say that we met all the representatives this (yesterday) evening and they were all in agreement not to disenfranchise the voters. We placed on records all the application forms and invited all the candidates’ representatives to have a look at them to satisfy themselves that they were in accordance. After deliberations all six of them agreed that we should not disenfranchise the voters. A supplementary list will be prepared for the election and copies will be distributed to representatives of the presidential candidates, and to all polling stations on voting day.”

The Electoral Commission and the Chief Registration Officer had petitioned the court to have the register of voters reopened to allow for rectification of the certified register so as to accommodate clerical errors and oversights discovered after the closure of the register on October 2, 2015.  

Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey dismissed the petition but guided the petitioners to seek the indulgence of the presidential candidates in agreeing to a supplemental list of electors, but added that the court will not be part of such an agreement.