Ceps organises debate on the three arms of the Constitution |20 June 2017

Executive, legislative, judiciary under the microscope

To commemorate Constitution Day which was celebrated on June 18, the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles organised a forum on Friday at its headquarters to discuss about the three arms of the Constitution – executive, legislative and judiciary.

Some 50 people attended the forum, among them Mohammed Afif, Secretary of State for Cabinet Affairs, and member of the National Assembly Sebastien Pillay, representatives of various non-governmental organisations, students, the Seychelles Police and the Seychelles Defence Forces.

The theme for this year’s Constitution Day is ‘Our Constitution, Our Voice’.

What are the roles and functions of the three arms of the government? After last year’slegislative election, the political landscape in Seychelles changed. One of the missions of the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) is to enable overall growth and development of the civil society sector and promote capacity development. It has since February been organising a series of workshops in all districts to educate the population about our Constitution. Some 2,000 Seychellois have responded positively to these fora and contributed towards the discussions.

On Friday, a forum was organised to commemorate the Constitution Day.

The executive

In her presentation about the executive, Margaret Pillay, Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Policy Affairs, talked about the presidential system ‒the structure of the executive in Seychelles,functions and responsibilities, and how citizens engage with the executive.

She noted that the “President is the chief executive and is elected directly by the people. In this system all three branches – executive, legislative, and judiciary – are constitutionally independent of each other and each is given specific powers to check and balance the others.In common usage people tend to identify the executive with the government”.

Through the presentation it came out that the primary function of executive is to enforce laws and maintain law and order in the state.

Whenever a breach of law takes place, it is the responsibility of the executive to plug the breach and bring the offenders to the books. Each government department is responsible for the implementation of the laws and policies concerning its work and for maintaining law and order in the state, the executive organises and maintains the police force.

How citizens engage with the executive?

There is downward engagement ‒ community mobilisation/sensitisation: through public meetings to gain information, discuss issues, or lend support; media sensitisation and awareness.

Then there is the horizontal engagement which is the networking with peer groups ‒civil society organisations, media and private sector through meetings, television, newspapers, radio, and the internet. 

Another type of engagement is the upward engagement ‒ effective advocacy to state actors/ government at various levels, creating platform for interface and dialogue between state and citizens: through writing letters, petitions, individual appointments/meetings. Also citizens interact directly with the executive by voting in national elections and referendaand taking part in political discussions.

Mr Afif responded to the queries of the audience and talked about the role of the president as the chief executive.

“All major appointments are made by the chief executive (President). For example: the appointment of magistrates, judges, attorney general, auditor general, ombudsman, commissioners (electoral, media, anticorruption, etc), and boards of parastatal and statutory bodies. For some of the appointments, the president does not need to consult with other arms of the Constitution but recently we have seen he is doing it for the welfare of the population. He is listening to the plights of the citizens and is making decisions based on that,” said Mr Afif.

He added that these fora give another chance to the people to understand the laws and how we operate in them.

“Many people have misconceived ideas on how the government functions. The more we educate people, the more they will understand the functions of each arm,” added Mr Afif.

What is the Legislature?

Marcus Volcy, public relations, communication and protocol officer at the National Assembly, made a brief presentation on the topic and Mr Pillay answered the questions.

The powers of the National Assembly (as provided by the Constitution) entail legislative powers – passing laws (both public bills and private members’ bills),alteration of the Constitution (requiring two-thirds majority), approval of the National Budget which comes before the House annually, ratification of treaties which are approved by a motion brought before the House and appointment of persons to the following posts:Ministers,Ambassadors and Commissioner of Police.

In his presentation, Mr Volcy explained the current settings of the National Assembly, the secretariat, the committees, the international andinter-parliamentary relations.

Those present questioned Mr Pillay about what the National Assembly is doing regarding some national issues like bullying and drugs.

The judiciary

As the representative of the judiciary was not able to make it to the forum, Ceps members gave a brief explanation on that branch of the Constitution.

Jude Fred, vice-chairperson of Ceps, noted that the forum is helping many Seychellois to better understand how our country functions, and that with the funding of European Union, they are organising various activities for the people to know more about our democratic system.