SADC post-election mission meets reps of key electoral stakeholders in dialogue forum |14 October 2017

Mission commends  people involvement  in democratic process

Representatives of key local electoral stakeholders had the opportunity to comment and air their views on and discuss ongoing post-election reforms taking place in the country.

This was during a dialogue forum hosted yesterday by a mission of the SADC Electoral Advisory Council (SEAC) at the Savoy Resort & Spa at Beau Vallon.

The mission is in the country this week to assess the level of progress Seychelles has made in taking steps to carry out post-December 2015 presidential and September 2016 National Assembly elections recommendations all aimed at strengthening democratic processes and institutions in the country.

The recommendations came out of the reports of key electoral stakeholders including those of the SADC Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM).

The mission includes head of delegation Professor Mhpo Molomo, Justice John Tendwa and Dr Mavis Matenge.

After spending the week interacting with different stakeholders which include the media, civil society groups, members of parliament, the electoral commission, political parties, faith-based organisations among others, on Thursday afternoon they paid a courtesy call on President Danny Faure at State House and yesterday morning the mission hosted a stakeholders’ dialogue forum.

The forum brought together representatives of the above mentioned groups to give their views on how the recommendations are being carried out and discuss further the post-election climate in the country.

In opening remarks to launch the forum Justice Tendwa said it also aimed to further explore the post-electoral 2016 development in the country in areas of democracy-building, nation-building and promoting good governance.

It was the head of the mission Professor Molomo who led the discussions and he said it is an open, frank and transparent process to allow all the stakeholders an opportunity to react as a collective group on the deliberations held throughout the week.

“The bilateral engagement we’ve had were inspiring given the amount of work in terms of addressing the recommendations and the extent to which the government of Seychelles has proceeded to institute the reforms are meant to  deepen and strengthen democracy and democratic processes here,” Professor Molomo said.

Professor Molomo went on to add that during the week-long interactions with different groups the mission got a deep sense of people participation in the democratic process here in order to make Seychelles a better country and create a lasting legacy for future generations.

“Through our interactions we have been very much encouraged that within a short time a lot has been achieved but we have also taken not that there are also a lot of outstanding issues to address in order to make Seychelles a model for the  region in terms of facilitating democratic governance,” said Professor Molomo.