Electoral Commission of Seychelles’ new members sworn in: |07 July 2017

Work to make the commission more credible, respected

Sworn in as commissioners of the Electoral Commission of Seychelles, Luciana Lagrenade and Veronique Bonnelame-Alcindor have said they can make meaningful contributions to the organisation, making it more credible, respected and accepted by the public.

Mrs Lagrenade and Mrs Bonnelame-Alcindor took the oath of allegiance and the official oath in the presence of President Danny Faure, Designated Minister Macsuzy Mondon, chairman and members of the Constitutional Appointments Authority (CAA), chairman and members of the Electoral Commission of Seychelles, secretaries of State, distinguished guests and family members.

The new appointments have been made possible through the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of Seychelles, which was approved by the National Assembly on April 7, 2017 and came into force on April 18, 2017.

The Amendment to Article 115 (a) of the Constitution changed the composition of the Electoral Commission from five to seven members.

President Faure made the appointments from candidates proposed by the CAA as prescribed in the Constitution. The leader of the opposition was also consulted prior to the appointments in view of the prevailing spirit of transparency and co-habitation.

No stranger to elections as she has served as electoral assistant and presiding officer in presidential and legislative elections since the birth of the Third Republic in 1993, Mrs Lagrenade believes the experience gained over the years will help her make a meaningful contribution towards the commission.

“Considering that an electoral commission in any country is one of the institutions that protect and safeguard democracy, I believe my experience as an electoral officer and as a presiding officer since the return of multiparty democracy in 1993 will stand me in good stead to do a very good job and to make meaningful and positive contributions to the betterment of the commission,” Mrs Lagrenade told the media.

She added that over the years she has come across some anomalies in the voting procedures which can be unclear to both voters and people who are supervising elections, and therefore there is a need to put in place proper quality assurance mechanism.

“We all must understand what is happening, what should be done and what do we expect from what is to be done. For example, when someone accompanies another person (an elderly or other person) to the voting station, he/she believes he/she can tell the person for whom to vote. And sometimes, the accompanying person becomes angry with the voter for choosing to vote for another candidate. I know we have had a lot of voter education over the years, but we have to make the person accompanying the voter understand that once he/she steps inside the voting station, it is the presiding officer and staff who are in control and he/she will only watch the process. This is a very pertinent example and many people have pointed it out,” Mrs Lagrenade said.

Compared to Mrs Lagrenade, Mrs Bonnelame-Alcindor’s experience in elections is as an observer during the elections of 2016 on behalf of the civil society.

Mrs Bonnelame-Alcindor, who also mobilised resources from donors for voter education and the development of a project for a national voter census, was unlucky in 2011 but is “very happy to be on the committee now”.

Asked what will be her contribution to the commission, Mrs Bonnelame-Alcindor replied: “The reason I applied is because I think I can contribute by bringing in and helping to shape the future of the commission in helping to bring about the changes that have been brought forward by the stakeholders – civil society, political parties and the public in general so that we have a better and more efficient commission which is also more credible. And eventually more respected and accepted by the public.”

Mrs Lagrenade has a Master of Laws degree in Business Laws from De Montfort University in the UK, a Master of Arts in English from Warwick University in the UK and a Bachelor in Education from Edith Cowan University in Australia. Her career has been mainly in the education sector but for the past 10 years her focus has been on quality assurance. Currently, she is the director of quality assurance at the University of Seychelles.

As for Mrs Bonnelame-Alcindor, she has a Master of Science degree in Information Technology and Project Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Land Economics from the University of Paisley in Scotland.

She has experience working with projects and grants locally and abroad. For six years, Mrs Bonnelame-Alcindor was employed as the national coordinator for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme under the UNDP (United Nations Development Programmes). 

The two new members have been appointed for a period of seven years. The five other members of the commission are Hendrick Gappy (chairman), Bernard Elizabeth, Beatty Hoarau, Gerard Lafortune and Marie Thérèse Purvis.

The mandate of the five members who had been serving the commission since 2011 will end in July 2018.