The party held a press conference to confirm its return to
the political scene and to give its views on electoral reform.
The Seychelles National Party (SNP) has confirmed its
intention to return to active politics. Indeed, despite its reservations about
the outcome of the electoral reform process, the party “will be taking part in
the next elections due to be held in 2016”, its leader, Wavel Ramkalawan,
announced during a press conference on Thursday.
This follows a peaceful march against vehicle-related taxes
it organised on December 29, 2014. “What we have today is not an opposition,
it’s just a watchdog of the ruling party”, he denounced. Accordingly, the SNP
will organise a series of meetings in the different districts, starting at the
end of the month and has already finalised a list of 25 candidates for the
National Assembly elections.
The party also
circulated a statement in which it commented the electoral reform anticlimax.
“From the outset, the SNP knew it would not obtain
everything that it had set out to accomplish. However, the whole process and
its final outcome has one again shown that the Parti Lepep cannot be trusted
even when it gives its word. The majority of recommendations of the Electoral
Commission (EC) have not been accepted. The Parti Lepep has gone back on its
word to participate fairly alongside other parties and not to use its executive
power to overrule the final recommendations. Instead they have brought in
amendments of their own and going as far as rejecting proposals they made at
the forum”, the document averred.
Among the shortcomings indentified by the SNP are the
absence of a ceiling for electoral expenses; the decision not to provide
assisted voters with two electoral officers to prevent “bullying” by party
activists; the need to provide the names and addresses of donors who contribute
SCR5 000 and above (“the SNP sees this as a means to scare would-be donors
especially those giving to the opposition”); and the denial of financial
assistance to political parties as a way of “sustaining the democratic
process”. The electoral reform forum wasn’t however a completely fruitless
endeavour. The SNP recognised, for instance, that the maintenance of an open
voter’s register, the right for persons in remand to vote and the possibility
for opposition candidates to campaign on polling day as positive advances.
“The Seychelles National Party fully engages itself in
persisting in the fight to strengthen our democracy. As we endeavour to bring
about further change in our electoral laws, while at the same time being fully
engaged in transforming society and ridding it of all the social ills that are
slowly destroying the family, our youth and our vital institutions, we wish to
announce today that the SNP will be taking part in the next elections due to be
held in 2016”, the statement claimed. And as a way of showing their
exemplarity, former SNP members of the National Assembly committed to donate 5%
of their pension to the party.
Source:Today
