Anse Boileau by-election - SPM candidate Louis Loizeau questions credibility of election process |16 February 2018

Louis Loizeau, the Seychelles Patriotic Movement (SPM) candidate in the forthcoming by-election in the Anse Boileau district, has expressed his “dissatisfaction in the manner by which the Electoral Commission has FAILED to deliver its commitment to ensure a free, fair, transparent and unbiased procedure”.

We reproduce a letter to that effect that Mr Loizeau has sent to the acting chairman of the Electoral Commission Bernard Elizabeth:

“Dear Sir,

“Reference is made to a meeting held at your office in AARTI Chambers in the afternoon of Nomination Day; that is on Monday February 5, 2018, during which the matter of Printing of Ballot Papers Locally was proposed as a measure of cutting down on direct and affiliated cost.

The political parties / candidate were duly informed that all interested potential companies operating in the printing field would be invited to tender for the process.

“A mutual agreement was reached with all relevant parties and independent candidate whereby it was duly agreed upon that prior to any appointment or contracting of any printer thereof, the matter would be discussed with the political parties and the independent candidate.

“During the same above cited meeting, it was also duly agreed upon that part and parcel of the conditions to be met by the appointed or chosen printer, would be that all oversight procedures should be in place to ensure maximum security during the printing process of the ballot papers.

“The awarding of the contract for the printing of the ballot papers to ‘Print House’, the very operator printing and publishing ‘Today in Seychelles’, locally known and branded as ‘quasi sympathetic’ to the LDS politicians, has since the announcement of the contract become the topic which has triggered mass uncertainty on the credibility or if not impartiality of the security of the printing process.

“Nevertheless, my prime point of contention as a candidate representing the Seychelles Patriotic Movement rests on the fact that neither of the above cited conditions and agreement reached during the course of our meeting of February 5, 2018, has been duly abided by, let alone respected.

“It is in the essence of the latter that I am writing to you to express my total dissatisfaction in the manner by which the Electoral Commission has FAILED to deliver its commitment to ensure a free, fair, transparent and unbiased procedure. The said is to me an unhealthy, unethical and untoward state of affair which does not at bode well with the organisation of a credible and acceptable process.”