Presidential election 2015 |01 December 2015

Arid observers ready for deployment

A group of 20 election observers from the Association for Rights, Information and Democracy (Arid) have completed their training in election observation in collaboration with the electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA).

The workshop was run by Miguel De Brito and Robert Gerenge, both currently on an international election observation mission in Seychelles.

Arid is the second group of domestic observers to be accredited by the Election Commission ahead of the presidential election due to take place this week.

According to its chairperson, Lucianne Sophola, Arid will deploy observers in all electoral districts on the main polling day and also at special polling stations.

Some of the topics covered in the training programme were: understanding the electoral cycle, free, fair and transparent election, and the SADC (Southern African Development Community) principles on democratic election in the region and observation methodology.

Arid also talked about its preliminary report on the observation of the campaigning period until now. According to the report, the political situation is generally favourable and Seychelles is ready to hold presidential election.

Based on the observations made, citizens are highly engaged in the electoral process and most voters are aware of the voting procedures.

However according to Arid’s observation, there are some challenges that need to be addressed namely, proper code of conduct for all media houses and media practitioners and more comprehensive civic and voters’ education in the national media on the roles and responsibilities of voters.

According to the report there were some isolated incidents relating to unfair and intimidating conduct of some party activists and cases of disfiguring and vandalism of candidates’ posters involving all political parties.

Arid is calling on all citizens, party activists and voters in general to maintain tolerance, exercise respect and harmony during and after the election.