2020 Presidential election |18 September 2020
Ms Sinon (left) and Ms Amesbury speaking to the press yesterday (Photo: Joena Meme)
EC sheds more light on Patrick Pillay’s disqualification
Following the disqualification on Wednesday of Lalyans Seselwa’s potential presidential candidate, Patrick Pillay, from the 2020 Presidential election, the Electoral Commission (EC) has given further explanations on the reasons for the disqualification.
In a press release issued yesterday, the EC notes that for a nomination to be accepted, it has to meet the legal requirements which are: the nomination has to be submitted between 9am to 1pm; a certificate that the deposit (R15,000) has been paid as to be produced; it has to be endorsed by such number of persons entitled to vote at that election as specified by the Commission; copy of ID card of these persons (500) are to be produced; consent from political party for the candidate to stand; digital and hard copy of the party’s symbol; digital and hard copy of two passport photos of the candidate
“In terms of Mr Pillay, he was invited to submit his nomination at 9:30am. At 9:53pm the night before, the secretary general for Lalyans Seselwa (Daniel Cesar) contacted a staff and asked that they be scheduled for later. He was informed that by law he is entitled to come at any time between 9am and 1pm and that the next available slot was 11am. He confirmed for 11am,” says the EC press release.
“At 11am on September 16, Mr Pillay did not turn up and when we tried to call his number as listed on file this was unavailable. We then called Weston Wirtz who he had indicated as his potential vice-presidential candidate and directed us to text the party’s secretary general. Mr Cesar indicated that Mr Pillay will be coming at 12:30pm,” adds the press release.
“Mr Pillay arrived 7 minutes before closing time (1pm) and submitted his papers to the chief electoral officer 2 minutes before closing time.
“Upon verification of the documents submitted by Mr Pillay by other candidates which took place between 1pm and 2.30pm on the same day, one of the candidates lodged an objection on the grounds that Mr Pillay’s nomination had only 489 signatures and identified one of those as a person who is not registered to vote.
“As required by law the CEO invited Mr Pillay to be heard considering the objection. He turned up and stated that he has submitted a list of 504 supporters, and he does not personally know the one who is not a registered voter.
“His nomination was then processed as for all other candidates to see if it met the legal requirements. The number of signatures produced were counted and it was found that there were only 489. Each person listed were checked on the voters’ register and 25 were not found, thus reducing the list of 489 by 25. It also means that even if 504 had indeed been produced Mr Pillay would still not have met the legal requirements as it would be 479 (504 minus 25) which is still less than 500. Therefore, his nomination would have been rejected even without the objection placed.
“He was then invited to come and collect the determination of his objection and could still not be reached. Mr Wirtz being his running mate was therefore contacted. He showed up at 3.43pm with one more list of signatures amounting to 13 on the page and explained that Mr Pillay mistakenly omitted to include this in the documents submitted. To note that the one submitted were numbered up to 491 meaning that with the 13 missing it would have been numbered up to 504.
Mr Wirtz was advised that it was too late to submit such as the legal cut off time for accepting documents was 1pm. The Commission reaffirms its commitment in running an election that is free and fair for all candidates and confirms that at no point were the documents delivered by Mr Pillay tempered with by any third party or member of the Commission,” says the press release.
Elaborating further on the matter with the press yesterday morning at the EC headquarters, Orion Mall, Salina Sinon, the senior legal officer, noted that One Seychelles and Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) also forgot to bring some documents but as they had come early enough, they had ample time to go back and bring their missing documents before 1pm on Wednesday 16, 2020. One Seychelles had missing for its documents the printed hard copy of its logo and the consent of the party for its presidential candidate while for LDS, the soft copy of the required photo of its logo was missing.
“Nomination has to be submitted between 9am and 1pm. So anything submitted after 1pm is automatically rejected,” she said.
Chief electoral officer Manuella Amesbury, who stated that it was the presidential candidate for LDS, Wavel Ramkalawan, who objected to Mr Pillay’s nomination, has called on all potential legislative candidates to make sure that all of their documents are in order for today’s (September 18) nomination.
EC Press release/Patrick Joubert