Electoral commission inaugurates delimitation of boundaries committee   |25 July 2023

Members of the committee taking their oath of secrecy

The Seychelles Electoral Commission has inaugurated a delimitation of boundaries committee whose mandate is to review the country’s electoral boundaries within the next six months.

The committee was unveiled at a press conference last Friday at the Electoral Commission’s headquarters, Orion Mall by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Danny Lucas.

Members of the committee are Therese Gopal, director for Geographic Information Systems at the National Bureau of Statistics; Victor Pool, senior legal draughtsman from the Attorney General’s Office; Julien Alexis, director of Survey from the Ministry of Land and Housing; Delroy Bistolet from the Ministry of Transport; Denise Clarisse, director general for community affairs from the local government department; and Francis Coeur De Lion, director for Geographic Information Services within the  Ministry of Lands and Housing. 

At last week’s inauguration ceremony they also swore the oath of secrecy. The Electoral Commission also presented a plan for the delimitation of boundaries exercise to the committee members. The plan covers the entire process, effective from last Friday until the completion of the exercise by January 2024.

Mr Lucas said it was necessary to set up the committee to help with the process of delimitation of electoral boundaries ahead of the next election in 2025. Among the commission’s missions under the constitution is to carry out a continuous review of electoral boundaries and if necessary to re-adjust them, and in the event there is an increase in the number of population, to consider creating additional electoral areas.

“We noticed after the national population census that there was an imbalance in the number of population from the districts and this could also be observed on the voters’ register, which makes it necessary for us to review and make the adjustment. The current situation is that there is a discrepancy in the number of voters among electoral boundaries as well as the number of inhabitants,” said Mr Lucas.

He said that having a committee to carry out the exercise will make it more transparent and the final report will include concrete sets of facts based on data.

“The main aim of the exercise is to ensure that each voter’s vote has the same value. When the electoral areas represent around the same number of voters, it means they are all equal. When an electoral area has 4,000 voters and another 2,000, there is an imbalance in the value of votes,” explained Mr Lucas.

The delimitation of boundaries exercise will involve consultations with stakeholders, including political parties, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), members of the National Assembly as well as consultations with members of the public. According to Mr Lucas, the latter will be done through regional consultative meetings and public engagement is being undertaken by the chief electoral officer Manuella Amesbury and chief registration officer Sheena Boniface.

“We will take all the recommendations from the public even before compiling the final report because we cannot have such an exercise that touches and impacts on people’s lives without getting the contribution of the population,” said Mr Lucas.

The exercise has been separated into seven stages. Mrs Amesbury explained that the first five stages will cost R750,000. It includes reviewing the law, setting up of a technical advisory committee, thirdly conducting the review, followed by reviewing and approval of proposal by the commission, consultation with the public as well as review of the draft report.

“In the event that there is any major change to the electoral areas, then there will have to be an intensive civic campaign leading up to the 2025 elections. So our total budget up to the elections is R1.1 million for the time being,” added Mrs Amesbury.

According to the commission’s work plan, the committee is expected to have collected and submitted all the data by September, and make proposals to the Electoral Commission prior to a provisional report for consultation with stakeholders and the public.

The final report will be submitted to the head of state and the national assembly by January 2024.

Patsy Canaya

Photos by Electoral Commission