Ramkalawan was spared by Court of Appeal |09 September 2016

Seychelles National Party leader Wavel Ramkalawan was not found innocent by the Court of Appeal after the Constitutional Court had said he committed irregularities prior to the December presidential election.

Contrary to what was written in our article entitled ‘Stay of execution granted’ regarding four persons published in our yesterday issue, it was brought to our attention that Mr Ramkalawan was found guilty by three of the five judges of the Court of Appeal on August 12, 2016.

But taking the view that the acts and omissions arose in a one-off incident through inadvertence or misapprehension of the law, the court decided that Mr Ramkalawan should not be subject to the legal consequences under section 47 (1) of the Elections Act. Therefore his name was not to be struck off the voter’s register, contrary to the Constitutional Court’s decision to have the matter reported to the Electoral Commission so as to have his name taken off the voter’s register.

The judgment read: “We, accordingly, spare the Appellant, the application of section 47(1) of the Elections Act with respect to the reporting requirement to the Electoral Commissioner.”

Mr Ramkalawan, who had contested the result of the December presidential election won by James Michel with 50.15 percent of the votes, had been found by the Constitutional Court to have been involved in an illegal practice for sending a letter published in the Tamil language to voters from the Tamil community in Seychelles, in which he had promised them senior posts in his government so as to entice them to vote for him or to refrain from voting for his opponent.