General elections 2020 |05 October 2020

Printing in progress

Ballot papers arrive

By Vidya Gappy

With 17 days left before the October 22-24 general elections, 151,800 ballot papers (75,900 for presidential election and 75,900 for the National Assembly election) arrived safely in the country on Saturday morning onboard Emirates Flight EK 705.

The boxes were received and checked at the airport by a delegation comprising a team from the Electoral Commission of Seychelles (ECS) led by its chairperson Danny Lucas; representative of One Seychelles Alain Ste Ange; representative of Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) Georges Madeleine; representative of United Seychelles (US) Jocelyn Humphrey; representative of Association for Rights Information & Democracy (Arid), Linda Monthy; representative of Citizens Democratic Watch Seychelles (CDWS) Fred Bamboche.

After the package had been disinfected, the delegation was able to inspect all boxes and they were officially signed off by ECS member Daniella Larue under strict supervision of the police.

Both representatives of the civil society noted that they were satisfied with the exercise and they were able to witness every step of the activity until it was sent in a truck to be stored in a secret place for security reason.

Before leaving Dubai where the printing of the ballot papers took place, Manuella Amesbury, chief executive of ECS, noted in a pre-recorded interview that “the big delegation went to Dubai on September 27, together with representatives of the political parties and the independent candidates. But one week prior, another commissioner came to Dubai to start the technical work. Once we landed, we went to the print house to verify the job that has been done. After checking the printing plates, we gave the go-ahead to start the printing of the ballot papers. The process was smooth and at every moment, the representatives of the different parties were present. All decisions taken at the different stages were made in collaboration. All activities were recorded in the occurrence book. In total we printed 75,900 ballot papers for the presidential election and 75,900 for the National Assembly election. The two batches were packed separately and each batch has been packed according to its district. All these were done under the supervision of the representatives of the different political representatives”.

Mrs Amesbury also announced that the two ballot papers are of different colours so that the population is not confused.

“Before the election, we will conduct educational programmes for the population to explain how to use the ballot papers. With the change in law, the ballot papers have been printed in the form of a booklet and each booklet has a serial number which will definitely facilitate the accountability procedures,” explained Mrs Amesbury.

Cynthia Marcel, public health officer, said: “On our side, we made sure that we shared the health guidelines to all the representatives before we even left Seychelles. We had instructions on how to behave at the airport, restaurant, etc. We made sure we had sanitisers. Every morning we did the temperature check of all delegates and before we left Dubai we did our PCR test 48 hrs prior. We all got authorisation to return to Seychelles.”

Kevin Marengo, representative of the independent candidates, said: “For me this exercise is a first experience. So far I am quite impressed with the quality of printing and the security that was included on the paper to make sure the election goes smoothly. The ECS has done a good job to make it become a success and everything went on smoothly.”

Sharo Valentin, LDS representative, said: “In this exercise I must say that we have a group of honest people who is working together. This team is working for Seychelles and the Seychellois people. The paper and the security used for the ballot is of high standard.”

Wilson Joseph, US representative, said: “I came here with the guidance from my Party and to observe the laws set by the Electoral Commission. It is the first time that the ballot papers are printed in Dubai as before they were printed in South Africa and Singapore. Everything went smoothly. We checked everything and in consultation with all representatives, we produced a ballot paper for Seychellois which is clean. I congratulate Mr Bastienne and Mrs Amesbury for this wonderful collaboration.”

The accompanying photos provided by the ECS show some highlights of the ballot printing exercise in Dubai.

Vidya Gappy