2016 Legislative Election - LDS insists that all districts vote together |14 June 2016
The Lalyans Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) has once more reacted against the proposal made by the Attorney General (AG) for voters residing on Ile Persévérance to vote in the district where they are now registered in the forthcoming legislative election and to vote again after the new district is declared an electoral area.
AG Ronny Govinden last week announced that his office is proposing an amendment in the law which will permit residents of the reclaimed island to vote in their former districts, ensuring their right to vote in the process. The National Assembly is supposed to vote on the Bill today while the LDS is calling on the AG not to put it before the people’s representatives. In case this first demand is not heard, the alliance of opposition parties is asking the members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and eventually the country’s president who will have to approve it, to consider how its consequences can affect democracy.
If their demand is not heard, LDS leaders have announced that they will bring the case to the Constitutional Court as a last resort.
In a press conference held at Arpent Vert yesterday afternoon, they insisted that if the Bill is passed, it will permit voters from Persévérance to vote twice in the same election and for two different candidates in two different electoral areas.
“The Bill being proposed by the AG does not reply to electoral exigencies and will distort the electoral process as it will permit people to vote twice. As a legal principle you do not pass a law just to satisfy a situation. You pass a law to satisfy everybody,” said LDS lawyer Bernard Georges, who went on to describe it as unconstitutional.
To further prove his point, Mr Georges argued that the process should be guided by three constitutional principles. Those are that all persons above the age of 18 should be able to vote in an election; all votes must be of equal value; and that the number of districts cannot change during an Assembly’s mandate, as this will change the balance of power in the Assembly. This is why he added that a National Assembly election should only be held after the dissolution of the last Assembly.
“If we look at those three principles, it means that people should vote once, in one electoral area and after the dissolution of the Assembly. So the best way is for them to vote in their district once it has become an electoral area. The best solution is a change in the Law to permit all districts to vote together,” Mr Georges emphasised.
He went on to refute the AG’s statement that the “one man one vote” principle will not be affected as is the case for bye elections.
“The AG’s argument has no substance. Bye elections are different as they generally involve the same voters. Now a large group of people will vote in another place for the same MNA, in the same Assembly. In bye elections the number of voters concerned is minimal. Here, a whole district is being called to vote twice,” he insisted.
Also qualifying the AG’s proposal as unacceptable, LDS chairman Roger Mancienne added that they have proposed the solution to the Electoral Commission (EC) which has accepted it.
“The EC has said that all 26 districts should vote together in the same election. This means that the EC is ready to organise elections in Persévérance along with the other districts,” he stated, adding that “government sees an electoral advantage for the ruling party” in the alternative it is proposing.
He felt that as was the case when Roche Caïman became a new electoral area in 1998, the process could have been engaged on time in order to satisfy all requirements as prescribed by law.
“The process started last year and the draft order from the president was approved by the National Assembly. However, only this year and after an opposition campaign that he approved and gazetted the change.”
In the eventuality that the amendment is approved, LDS has however made it clear that it is not envisaging a boycott of the election. We are thus far away from the repeat of the 2011 scenario when the main opposition party – the Seychelles National Party (SNP) - boycotted the legislative election. This paved the way for the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) to gain sufficient votes for its leader David Pierre to replace SNP’s Wavel Ramkalawan as Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.
In the eventuality of another court case after the Constitutional Court has recently dismissed petitions brought by Mr Ramkalawan against the results of last December’s presidential election which President Michel narrowly won against him, Mr Mancienne has joined Mr Georges in expressing confidence in the Court.
“We have confidence in the Constitutional Court. We are engaged in democracy and must respect the courts. A decision not in your favour is no reason to lose confidence in the Judiciary,” he said.
On a larger note, Mr Georges has however stressed on the need for constitutional reforms, regretting that more than 100 proposals made in 2008 have not yet been put into practice.
“The constitutional stability is always in question and this is not good for the country. We are always creating doubt and halting democratic development,” the lawyer said.
“The country is crying out for reforms,” he concluded.