OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
PRESS RELEASE
04.07.2011
NEW BILL PROPOSED
The Constitutional Review Committee’s Report of December 2009, addressed to the President of the Republic, had recommended that Article 115 of the Constitution be amended to provide for an Electoral Commission comprising three members, as opposed to the existing office of the Electoral Commissioner.
Accordingly, on 10th June, the Cabinet approved a Bill proposing an amendment to the constitution whereby an Electoral Commission would be created, comprising three persons appointed using procedure similar to that for the appointment of the Constitutional Appointments Authority (CAA).
Following further deliberations by National Assembly Members of Parti Lepep, a decision was taken to withdraw the amendment as originally proposed. During its meeting of 30th June, Cabinet approved an alternative version of the amendment to the Constitution, which would provide for the establishment of a larger Electoral Commission, comprising five Members, including the Chairperson. The Members would be appointed by the President from nominations made by the CAA.
Allowing the CAA to make nominations has the advantage that the CAA can invite applications from suitably qualified and experienced citizens to serve on the Electoral Commission, and for the CAA to review such applications and make appropriate recommendations. This procedure also distances the appointment of Members of the Electoral Commission from undue political influence. It also provides an avenue for members of civil society, other institutions and aspiring citizens, to apply for membership of the Commission.
Once the Electoral Commission has been established, the Commission would immediately begin work to review all existing legislation relating to Presidential, legislative and other election in Seychelles, and matters pursuant to Articles 117 and 118 of the Constitution, e.g. the funding and expenditure of political parties in the context of election campaigns.
23 comments:
God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois while SNP sleeps!
It is an improvement and a rare concession from Parti Lepep.
It is still not good enough. The CAA is dominated by Parti Lepep and will decide who gets nominated to the Electoral Commission. PL will still have POLITICAL CONTROL of the Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commission will then become the ELECTORAL REFORM COMMISSION. But will PL implement the recommendations ?
Parti Lepep just does not want to DEMOCRATISE this country and is just messing about.
It might work if they remove BONNELAME and replace him by an acceptable person as chairman, e.g someone with no known political affiliations past or present.
And then the law must state that the President must choose from those nominated by the CAA. Say 7 are nominated and 5 must be chosen.
Parti Lepep must not have POLITICAL CONTROL of the Electoral Commission.
Gill, stop the BITCHFEST against SNP.
This procedure also distances the appointment of Members of the Electoral Commission from undue political influence.
What would they call Michel's influence on the Commission ?
We have just read the news about government announcement - we cannot publish the contents of our meeting here but have added a link.
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/807126
Allowing the CAA to make nominations has the advantage that the CAA can invite applications from suitably qualified and experienced citizens to serve on the Electoral Commission, and for the CAA to review such applications and make appropriate recommendations.
In that case a revamped CAA should nominate 5 members for the president to rubber stamp. Would Michel accept that ?
This is what State House said as long ago as THURSDAY 16 JUNE 2011 when it rubbished the recommendation of the Constitutional Committee on how the Electoral Commission would be appointed.
"The Cabinet noted this recommendation, however it proposed that a more direct system of appointment would be more effective, whereby the views of the President and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly would be clearly exhibited in endorsing the Electoral Commission, and thereby ensuring political stability in this process."
Can the person who said this RESIGN please, as the government has done a 360 degrees turn in 2 weeks. The impression given is that THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
MORE EFFECTIVE ... ENSURING POLITICAL STABILITY.
Why are they now proposing a LESS EFFECTIVE sytem which is NOT POLITICALLY STABLE ?
Parti Lepep does not have the votes in the assembly to bulldoze this through. SNP will be committing suicide if it accepts this, unless Bonnelame is replaced by say Annette Georges.
PL is clearly on the ropes. It is doing the very thing that it rubbished a few days ago.
As PL does not have enough votes, it is either expecting this to fail or we can expect VERSION 3 soon.
""Following further deliberations by National Assembly Members of Parti Lepep, a decision was taken to withdraw the amendment as originally proposed.""
That is probably a BIG FAT LIE. The monkeys had no say in it. They were busy eating peanuts.
"""Allowing the CAA to make nominations has the advantage that the CAA can invite applications from suitably qualified and experienced citizens to serve on the Electoral Commission, and for the CAA to review such applications and make appropriate recommendations. This procedure also distances the appointment of Members of the Electoral Commission from undue political influence. It also provides an avenue for members of civil society, other institutions and aspiring citizens, to apply for membership of the Commission."""
Presumably in the same way that suitably qualified Seychellois lawyers can apply to become judges and magistrates and get turned down.
""and for the CAA to review such applications and make appropriate recommendations. ""
Somehow getting a PL-controlled body to sift through the job applications and weed out undesirables is more important than a "direct system of appointment" which is "more effective" and provides "political stability".
PL has lost the plot over this.
The BOYCOTT-ON BOYCOTT-OFF strategy is driving State House mad. They clearly are not thinking clearly, as they try to stitch up the Electoral Commission.
Still no explanation why the Bill was pulled at the last minute. We do not buy the "further deliberations by National Assembly Members of Parti Lepep" face-saving excuse. They are probably laughing their heads off reading this.
The boycott strategy avocated by Chris is bearing its friut.But caution!This is a small victory which has been achieved by constant pressure on Pp,we will need to continue keeping tab of Pp and ensure that things are changing for the best not just a superficial change.
Jeanne D'Arc
What if after all these changes PP still win future elections. What will the excuses be then?!!
A law is as good as the people who enforce it.The CAA as presently constituted is totally incompetent in the carrying out of its mandate. One just has to see the quality of judges to see that the CAA has completely failed the people of Seychelles.If the CAA as presently constituted is going to have anything to do an Electoral Commission I would rather have Gappy as an electoral commissioner despite his incompetence.
If PL really thinks it has majority support in Seychelles, it should level the playing field and remove all doubts about its legitimacy. PL should give up all the advantages that it had under one party system and still enjoys today. If it still wins, there will be no legitimate complaints. But we are very far from this situation.
We need a CAA chairman who is independent of PL. Can you imagine Bonnelame defending the CAA in the same way that the Chief Justice has defended the judiciary ?
"What if after all these changes PP still win future elections. What will the excuses be then?!!"
You'll have to wait and see then isn't it!!?? But wouldn't you say it's a start, even a small start, or would rather they just give up.
SNP STATEMENT ON REVISED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT - July 05, 2011
http://www.snpseychelles.sc/
With genuine institution ,fair rules of the game Pp will never ever win any election.Why?Even now under one party rule with the manipulating machine well oiled-,buying votes,adding dead on the list,etc etc and etc the winning margin was not that big,in fact the different in numbers came from those names added on the registered lists that Pp did not want anyone to see eccept RAM their stooge who did not even bother about it.
Jeanne DÂrc
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