Secondary schools gear up for SNYA elections |03 February 2023

The press conference: (l to r) Jenitta Ali, Marie May Larue and Mariette Esparon

Election dates set for February 27 to March 3

By Diane Larame

The Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC) has announced that the timeline for the Seychelles National Youth Assembly (SNYA) elections will start on February 8, with the process of nomination in all the secondary schools only, which is also the deadline for participants to register and submit nomination form.

The SNYA elections is expected to take place from February 27 to March 3, 2023.

This was relayed to the media by the SNYC’s Information and Communication Officer, Marie May Larue; SNYA’s coordinator, Jenitta Ali; and Mariette Esparon, the principal education officer representing the Ministry of Education, at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at the SNYC’s headquarters at Orion Mall.

According to them, all applicants will have to get parental approval to be accepted and nomination forms should contain 25 signatures from colleagues of the candidate. If participants meet the requirement, they will automatically be eligible as a nominated candidate.

As was announced last year, SNYA will be changing the way it recruits participants and this is starting this year through elections, which will be held in all secondary and post-secondary schools in Seychelles.

The new age for eligibility as a participant/candidate is 14 to 17 years old which, includes first year post-secondary students.

The election is being organised in partnership with different organisations, including their parent ministry’s youth department, their main partner, which is the Ministry of Education and an electoral organisation, which is helping to ensure the election runs smoothly.

Following nomination in secondary schools on February 8, a working session with the nominees will take place February 11, to empower the candidates and prepare them for the next step, which is plan their campaign.

The campaign in all secondary schools will be launched on February 13, for a ten-day period, ending on February 23. This will be followed by a cooling off period, where no campaigning will take place.

The election of candidates from secondary schools will take place from February 27 to March 3.

All schools will be provided with proper equipment by SNYC to set up for election day.

Ms Larue explained the procedure will work the same as the national election, with only a few things omitted to accommodate the students in schools.

Ms Esparon, who spoke on behalf of the Ministry of Education, shared that all schools have given their full support for this election procedure as they understand its importance and how it will influence students.

“The training session with the school staff went on successfully and the staff were enthusiastic about the upcoming procedure,” she said.

She also shared that although not all schools have submitted a date for their election, she is positive that by this week all of them would have come up with a date.

Post-secondary students will be following a different calendar due to the difference in the school entry. Their timetable will be announced later.