Dr Ramadoss re-elected SCCI chairman |12 April 2010

In the election, which took place last Friday at the National Theatre at Mont Fleuri, Dr Ramadoss outpaced Louis D’Offay to retain his seat as head of the body representing the country’s business community.

Dolor Ernesta retained his vice-chairperson seat while Brijesh Jivan is the chamber’s new treasurer. He replaces S. Palani.

The chamber’s council members are Noellie Alexander, Conrad Benoiton, Wendy Didon, Antonio Lucas, Lynda Labrosse, Jadel Malow, Clifford Andre, S. Palani, Pravin Darad, Valentina Seth, Wilson Nancy and Germaine Michaud.

Friday’s meeting started off on a hostile note after delegates started complaining about irregularities in the way the election process was being carried out.

After the counting of ballot papers for the election of chairman was completed, there were more votes than registered voters and this caused havoc among the voters.

A total of 465 ballot papers were counted while the total of voters registered was 413.
Out of the grand total, Dr Ramadoss won 285 votes compared to Mr D’Offay’s 173.
 There were seven spoilt votes.

Following the incident, which was attributed to a failure of the voter registration system, Mr D’Offay decided to leave the hall after various calls to suspend the meeting and postpone the election were turned down.

The election of the remaining members of the committee took place in the absence of Mr D’Offay and several other registered associates.

Dr Ramadoss said the prime target of his new mandate is to build a new office building for the chamber and also to organise an economic forum which will bring together delegates from the Indian Ocean region.

He also vowed to defend and protect the rights of all registered members.