Opinion - National Assembly Election ... as observed by Mancham |12 September 2016

The election of the National Assembly is finally over.  It would appear that all interested parties recognised that the process should end in an atmosphere of maturity, dignity and with great concern as to the future stability of our small nation. If my calculation is correct, the LDS (Linyon Demokratik Seselwa) which is an alliance of four parties namely Seychelles National Party of Wavel Ramkalawan, Lalyans Seselwa of Patrick Pillay, the Seychelles Party for Justice and Democracy of Alexia Amesbury and Seychelles United Party of Robert Ernesta and independent presidential canditate Philippe Boullé, polled 30,444 popular votes and Parti Lepep polled a total of 30,218 votes.

Altogether LDS won in 15 constituencies whereas Parti Lepep won in 10 constituencies, and under the formula of proportional representation accepted by the parties – each of the two parties were allocated four additional seats.

In brief, LDS will have 19 members in the National Assembly and Parti Lepep 14. Of course with this result, and what one can do with it, must be considered against a background that the leader of Parti Lepep in December 2015 won the presidential election. President James Michel was elected as President of the Republic for the next five years.

It goes without saying that the national interest would suffer unless the executive and legislative can find a Modus Vivendi.

In this respect, I was impacted by the speech of Roger Mancienne, leader of the LDS, acknowledging victory to the effect that his party is agreeable to collaborate with Parti Lepep and find as much common accord as possible in the national interest.

I was correspondingly impacted with the response of President James Michel stating that he was ready to collaborate in the national interest and to continue to promote as he had declared “National Unity”.

There was, in this election, another party styling itself as the Seychelles Patriotic Movement (SPM) which proclaimed itself as a third force.

This party did not poll many votes but the point their leaders made about building a bridge certainly impacted many supporters of both of the two major parties. Of course as voters mostly wish to be associated to a group in the frontline, they would not vote for this newly formed third force. But the point they made concerning their mission to build a bridge to promote National Reconciliation and unity should not be dismissed as they could constitute an important nucleus for the promotion of bridge building and in the end of polarisation.

As the political leader who introduced the notion of National Reconciliation after 15 years of life in exile, I must say I was impressed with what some of their candidates had to say.

This augurs well for the future. In fact all the people interviewed by SBC said that their main support for these elections was to see a Seychelles moving forward in peace and fraternal harmony.

I live in hope that one day my dream of seeing all Seychellois living and co-existing in an atmosphere of peace, love and fraternal harmony is realised.

Sir James R. Mancham