General elections ‒ October 22-24, 2020 |19 October 2020

Illegal posters still up despite EC’s call for their removal

By Elsie Pointe

It was on Friday afternoon, less than a week before the presidential and parliamentary elections that the Electoral Commission spoke on the illegal billboards that had been put up some weeks ago.

Although he did not directly allude to the ‘Danny Out Election Now’ posters that had been erected next to other election posters, chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Danny Lucas in a press conference noted that it is illegal to put up such billboards.

“There are some billboards with messages against a presidential candidate and this is an offence under the Elections Act. It is an offence because it does not have any detail about the party that has placed them in different public areas,” said Mr Lucas.

Mr Lucas stated that this has been communicated to the police force, adding that “we are aware that actions will be taken against the persons identified to have done this”.

The billboards will also be taken down by the relevant authorities.

However, this prompts the question as to why it took the EC weeks to address this issue since the commission had already been made aware of these offences by the Road Transport Commissioner who alerted the EC in writing.

The EC had yet to respond to the letter when Road Transport Commissioner, Wilson Denis, spoke to Seychelles NATION early last week.

In fact a number of queries to the Electoral Commission from the media have been left unanswered, and statistics and figures are rarely forthcoming. Meanwhile, the next press update has been scheduled for the eve of the election on October 21.

Mr Lucas also took the opportunity on Friday to denounce other illegal actions being undertaken in the run-up to the 2020 general elections.

In reference to a recent incident, Mr Lucas described the vandalism of a car belonging to a parliamentary election candidate as a deplorable act which will have consequences for those who are behind it.

“We absolutely condemn this action. It is not something that should happen in a civilised society. We are at a stage where we should be able to respect each other’s opinions and political convictions. These sorts of things are not at all helpful. We are encouraging the police to take all the necessary measures against the person(s) who has committed such an act,” expressed Mr Lucas.

“We have also witnessed situations on social media where some people have gone overboard and we are discouraging these statements that are often done under the guise of a fake profile[…]Everyone has their own opinions but let us not express them in a violent manner or abuse others.”

Mr Lucas also noted that there have been some other incidents that raised eyebrows as to whether or not they were election related but stressed that a police investigation will determine this.