Elizabeth and Ferrari to stand in Mont Fleuri-. SNP candidate’s name to appear first on ballot |27 June 2008

   
Jean-Francois Ferrari (left) and Frank Elizabeth, the two candidates who will contest the Mont Fleuri by-election

Mr Ferrari will stand on the Seychelles National Party’s ticket and Mr Elizabeth on the Democratic Party’s, as the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front is not fielding a candidate.

The seat fell vacant when Mr Ferrari resigned from the National Assembly last Friday.
Following the nominations, electoral commissioner Hendrick Gappy held closed-door talks with representatives of the SNP, the DP and the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation to work out the finer details of how the party political broadcasts (PPB) will be aired.

The opening PPBs will be broadcast on July 6 on TV and the following day on radio, while the closing ones will be aired on July 13 on TV and July 14 on radio.

Both parties’ representatives then drew lots which determined that Mr Ferrari’s name will appear first on the ballot paper and that the SNP will get the first 6½ minutes of both the opening and closing PPBs, with the DP following.

Mr Gappy told Nation that the airtime allocated belongs to the candidates, and it will be up to them to decide whether to invite their party leaders to speak during that time.

Commenting on the budget for the election, he said many basic costs remain the same as they would have been in a bigger election.

“It does not matter whether you are transporting just one election official or several to a station by boat, for example,” he said.

Asked what would have happened if both the SPPF and the DP had not entered candidates, Mr Gappy said: “In that case I’d simply have declared the SNP candidate the winner.”