SPSJD’s and Alexander Pierre’s application to prevent the Electoral Commission from releasing Presidential elections date |08 October 2015

Court rejects application for injunction in Presidential elections date release

The Electoral Commission will release the date of the Presidential elections today after the Constitutional Court yesterday rejected an application made by the Seychelles Party for Social Justice and Democracy, and Alexander Pierre for an interlocutory injunction restraining it.

This application for an injunction is one of the points in a petition against Vice-President Danny Faure in his capacity as Minister for Information, Administration and Youth, department of information and communication technology (DICT) principal secretary Benjamin Choppy, Mike Ernesta, DICT, the electoral commission, the chief registration officer and the attorney general.

In a special session yesterday afternoon, Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey, Justices Bernadin Renaud and Crawford McKee were unanimous in their decision to refuse the application.

In announcing the decision, Chief Justice Twomey said the court is of the view that the grant of an injunction “outweighs the merits of refusing it.”

The court is of the view that the “granting of an interim injunction would be tantamount to making a final decision on the matters raised in the petition.”

“For these reasons we refuse the application,” added Chief Justice Twomey.

The other points raised in the petition include questioning the credibility and accuracy of the register of voters, calling on the court to issue an order for district voters register to be released to the Seychelles Party for Social Justice and Democracy on election day and to be retained by it for a period of 30 days after the election results, and declaring that section 8 of the Elections Act relating to the oath of secrecy is null and void.