Some members of the business community dissatisfied with SCCI elections |06 April 2018

Some members of the local business community have expressed their dissatisfaction with the SCCI elections process and have concluded that this may have been engineered to ensure the current outcome, which is to see Oliver Bastienne elected as chairman.

A letter sent to the Seychelles NATION from a group of local businessmen and women said they reckon that the recent elections held for a new committee is almost similar to the two or three previous elections that were held over the last consecutive four to six years and have complained of a general lack of transparency.

“The main reason for this perception appears to have arisen from the heavy use of proxies that were pre-registered in one candidate’s name well before the AGM and the election process started,” the letter states.

It added that it is only after the elections were over that certain SCCI paid members have noticed some discrepancies in the vote counting and the figures being quoted.

Giving examples, the group state in their letter that there were 202 members on the eligible voting list and 187 proxies pre-registered under Oliver Bastienne’s name at the start of the AGM, hence totaling 389 valid votes to be cast.

The final count carried out by CDWS (Citizens Democratic Watch Society) recorded 418 valid votes cast; hence an extra 29 new votes were counted and accepted but it is unclear where they came from.

“If one removes the extra 29 votes and the 187 pre-assigned proxy votes, the results are therefore as follows: 202 valid votes cast, representing all members registered on the Election Day, of which 128 voted in favour of Mr Bastienne (63%) and 74 votes in favour of Gafoor Yakub (37%). This appears to be a more accurate tallying of votes,” the letter said.

When the group contacted by phone for his comments, Mr Yakub pointed out that irrespective of the possible discrepancy, Mr Bastienne has won and we should allow Mr Bastienne to fulfill his mandate and where possible, assist him in the discharge of his duties.

He also stressed “let us put our heads together to reform the Chamber and reinstate its credibility and integrity as a representative body of the private sector”.

Some of the comments made by this dissatisfied group who participated in the SCCI elections on Wednesday March 28 states that under Article 2.2.1 of the SCCI Constitution which deals with subscriptions, the SCCI Council should notify members of any increase in subscription fees at least 30 days in advance.

When discussing the audited accounts at the AGM, a number of members present at the meeting raised their hands and pointed out that they had not received the written notice.

The group say that at first glance it would appear that notices may have been sent to selective members of SCCI and the treasurer explained that he had sent out notices but maybe some members’ email addresses need to be updated.

One businessman representing 8 legitimate companies pointed out that he was challenged at the entrance of the hall and prevented from voting even though he had paid his companies’ dues up to December 2017.

Another gentleman who was representing 25 registered companies said he was turned away from entering the hall because the 25 company names had been omitted or left out of the Master List.

“Since the Agenda was to cover the SCCI operations and accounts up to 2017, those members feel that they should have been allowed to cast their votes, rather than only allowing those that paid their dues between January and March 2018 to vote. This is something that can be possibly considered in future SCCI elections,” the group say in their letter.

A well-known businessman says that “this was a coup d’etat” and went further to say that the whole election process was run like a ‘personal’ political campaign.

He said “no politics should be allowed into the Chamber’s affairs” and also remarked that in the future the use of proxies must be either stopped or re-examined for vote casting”.

The businessman added that “the newly elected SCCI chairman, Oliver Bastienne, should now represent the private sector’s interests; so strictly speaking he should resign from the STC board as there is an obvious conflict of interest here”.

Another businessman said “now that the elections are over, the way forward is to treat all private sector businesses joining the Chamber as a fraternity of businesses united by a common goal”.

He reflected on the fact that while he has initially questioned the legitimacy and dubiousness of the process, he feels we should learn a lesson from this and move forward.

A local businesswoman owning a group of companies said that she feels the Chamber is supposed to look after the interests of commerce and industry but its Council consists of mostly professionals like accountants, lawyers, insurance brokers at the moment.

“They may know commercial business but there is nobody really representing the commercial sector but the current office bearers have co-opted individuals from different associations such as the bankers association, taxi drivers association, farmers association and SHTA (tourism) to serve on the Council which is fine, but there doesn’t seem to be any representation of real commerce and industry,” she was quoted and stated in the letter.

She went on to explain that the number of retail and wholesale shops existing which she believes most of them are members of the Chamber outnumber all other sectors and yet they do not have a representative to air their views.

She questioned why other sectors all have their “own associations” but “the Chamber is itself the original Association of the commercial community so where do they air their grievances or make construction suggestions on their behalf?”