Lalyans Seselwa no longer a registered political party |18 May 2021
Seychelles NATION newspaper can confirm that Lalyans Seselwa is no longer a registered political party under the Political Parties Act.
A notice published by the Electoral Commission states that the commission has cancelled the registration of Lalyans Seselwa as a political party and has appointed a liquidator “which shall vests the assets of the party”.
Although the reasons behind the cancellation of Lalyans Seselwa has yet to be made public, it was clear that the party was losing steam when it performed poorly in the 2020 legislative election and its leader, Patrick Pillay, was unable to stand in the presidential election after only garnering about 489 signatures.
The Electoral Commission has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow (Wednesday May 19) in which it expects to provide explanations as to why it cancelled Lalyans Seselwa’s registration.
To recall, Lalyans Seselwa was a force to be reckoned with during the presidential election in 2015 when it took 14.19% of the total votes in the first round.
This was a staggering feat for an opposition party which had been in existence for less than year. Its leaders at the time were Patrick Pillay and the country’s current vice-president, Ahmed Afif.
Together with the Seychelles National Party (SNP), Alexia Amesbury’s Seychelles Party for Social Justice and Democracy and independent candidate Philippe Boulle, Lalyans Seselwa morphed into the Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) to take on Parti Lepep’s James Michel and the legislative election in 2016.
However Lalyans Seselwa broke away from LDS in February 2018 after Mr Pillay resigned as Speaker of the National Assembly over “irreconcilable differences” although the Lalyans Seselwa’s secretary general, Ahmed Afif, noted that the party’s allegiance remained with LDS.
Lalyans Seselwa fractured even more as its former members retained their seats in the National Assembly under the LDS umbrella.
In the 2020 elections, Lalyans Seselwa announced its support to the party in power at the time, United Seychelles – a snub to the LDS coalition it once formed part of.
Elsie Pointe