Leader of opposition explains walk-out situation |26 February 2021
The majority of United Seychelles (US) members of parliament walked out of the National Assembly chambers yesterday, after the leader of the opposition Sebastien Pillay made note of his dissatisfaction at the response from the panel from the Office of the President.
Hon. Pillay’s main point of contention was in regards to a question, addressed to principal secretary for administration in the Office of the President, Yvonia Richardson, but which Vice-President Ahmed Afif answered instead.
The leader of the opposition observed that technicians and civil servants who come before the National Assembly, particularly in regards to the budget, should be free to provide information that are asked of them.
“The government made a lot of statements during its budget speech and State-of- the-nation address, and we have the duty to find whether what the government has stated is correct, and if they match with the policies at hand. The technicians should be able to tell us that, so why are they taking away the technicians’ ability to talk?” Hon. Pillay said in an interview with Seychelles NATION.
“The budget process is not a farce, although they are treating it as a farce. And I made my stance quite clear to the Speaker. If we have to, we will bring a motion in regards to how the Speaker is managing the National Assembly, because all of the technicians were able to answer the questions placed before them during the 6th National Assembly,” he said.
Unfortunately, Hon. Pillay continued, the 7th National Assembly has regressed instead of building on the accomplishments of its 6th cohort.
The leader of the opposition further highlighted that the walk-out was further fuelled by a combination of events during the past few days.
This includes the letter to SBC which Speaker Roger Mancienne, in his role as leader of Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS), sent out in regards to US’ live press conferences and the ‘cheap shot’ by the finance minister against the leader of the opposition in his concluding remarks on Wednesday.
“The Speaker is the person consulted on the appointments of the chief executive and deputy chief executive of SBC, under the law. But now the Speaker is writing to SBC on behalf of a political party. It is a direct conflict of interest,” said Hon. Pillay.
Hon. Pillay is calling on Speaker Mancienne to resign from his position as the LDS party leader.
Nonetheless, Hon. Pillay said that US MNAs will return to participate in the committee stage examination of the 2021 budget.
“We walked out today in protest and we are assessing and monitoring the situation throughout the day. But we will definitely return to the National Assembly because the budget is important. We have important budget heads coming our way; the Ministry of Education, Health, Agency for Social Protection and other budgets which people’s lives depend on. We cannot let them down.”
The leader of the opposition is once again calling on the government to efficiently lead the country instead of ‘playing politics’.
Elsie Pointe