9th
September 2015
The
Electoral Commission
Aarti
Chambers
Mt.
Fleuri
Dear
Mr. Gappy,
Re: A Credible Electoral Roll
I write as Leader
of the Seychelles Party for Social Justice & Democracy.
I have read the comments
made by the Electoral commission (EC) in the Nation newspaper and needless to
say none of the concerns raised in regards to the huge discrepancies in the
Voters’ Register was dealt with. It is now of paramount importance and in the
National interests that the following matters are cleared up once and for all.
1 Initial
research conducted by local experts, based on available data indicate that
there has been systematic falsification of the Electoral Roll from as early as
1993, to date (either deliberate or inadvertent) meaning that there has been
“election fraud” as past elections were not “free and FAIR” thereby casting serious doubts on past election results, and
puts into question the legitimacy of the present government whose mandate
emanated from votes cast, and which now appears to have included votes by a
huge number of “phantom voters” and this
brings to mind something that Mr. Albert Rene is alleged to have said in 1997 “zot pour war nanm dan
bwat vote.’ It is very simple Mr Gappy, in 1993 the total population stood at
72,253 whilst registered voters were 50,370 and in 2015 the total population
stands at 93,419 whilst registered voters at 72,200. Can you please explain how
registered voters have increased by more than the total population over this
time period especially when taking into consideration that the non- Seychellois
element of total population was the fastest growing part of the equation?
Registered voters increased by 21,830 but total population increased by 21,166
for this same period.
2
Recent
analysis of the 2011 Presidential elections was carried out using the National
census of 2010 on a district level. It was found that in 24 out of 25 districts
there were more registered voters than people eligible. As an example, the
district of Mont Buxton had 2359 number of Seychellois of 15 and above when the
0-14 age group and non Seychellois component were removed as reported by the
2010 national census, but yet for the 2011 Presidential election there were
2989 registered voters. A gargantuan difference of 630 more registered voters
than people. The total votes cast in Mont Buxton were 2547 in the same
aforementioned election which means 188 people more voted than possible
registered voters and this is without 15,16 and 17 years removed from the
analysis. The question now, WAS THE ELECTORAL ROLL FALSIFIED AND MORE
IMPORTANTLY WHO CAST THE VOTES FOR THE NON EXISTENT PERSONS?
3
It
has now been documented that the present electoral register of voters includes
around 11,000 ‘phantom voters’ unless
there has been a deliberate or inadvertent falsification of this list can you
please explain to the people of Seychelles how this has happened, and also
please explain to the people of Seychelles what steps your office has
taken/going to take, to rectify the errors prior to the forthcoming election.
4
Based
on 3 above, all Opposition Political Parties once again requests a meeting with
EC, the one you promised last week. At the meeting held on 15th May
2015 between all political parties and the EC, Simon Gill of Parti Lepep
admitted that his Party had a soft copy of the Electoral Roll (las i dan nou
lamen). So if your office and PL both have soft copies of the Electoral Roll
why is it now necessary that you ask the President to amend the Election Act in
order to provide other Political
Parties with soft copies of the electoral roll with the provision that the
electronic copies should be provided in a secured unalterable format when the
Supreme Court has already ordered you to do so without the provision?
5 Unless
your office can come up with an explanation regarding the ‘phantom voters’ that
have systematically “voted” in the last few elections our local analysis shows
that, minus the ‘phantom votes’ in the last few Presidential Elections, Mr.
Wavel Ramkalawan could have been the winner with over 50% of the legitimate
votes cast and I do not need to spell out what this means!
6 If
you are unable or unwilling to explain all of the above my Party will forward
all relevant documents to the police to investigate what presently appears to
be a serious falsification of documents which is a criminal offence under
section 333 of the Penal Code and we will concurrently be seeking assistance
from our international partners to conduct a forensic investigation into the
matter, bearing in mind that there already exists a report highlighting the
discrepancy in the Electoral Roll.
Finally and in a
bid to inform the public so as to avoid the kind of nonsensical excuses your
office is so often make I quote the relevant sections from the Elections Act
the relevant starting with section
7. (1) The
Chief Registration Officer shall every year prepare a register of voters, for
each electoral area.
(2) In the
preparation of a register of voters under subsection (1), the Chief
Registration Officer may use
(a) any
information furnished to the Chief Officer of the Civil Status for the issue of
a National Identity Card under the National Identity Cards Act, 1995 and for
that purpose may require the Chief Officer of the Civil Status to communicate
to the Chief Registration Officer such information;
(b) any
information furnished to the Chief Officer of the Civil Status for the
registration of births and deaths under the Civil Status Act and for that
purpose may require the Chief Officer of the Civil Status to communicate to the
Chief Registration Officer such information;
(c) any
information recorded in the National Population Data Base compiled by the Chief
Officer of the Civil Status and for that
purpose may require any such information to be communicated to the Chief
Registration Officer;
“d) any information recorded in the register
maintained under section 9 of the Citizenship Act, 1994 and, for that purpose,
may require the Citizenship Officer to communicate to the Chief Registration
Officer such information;
(e) not withstanding
anything to the contrary in the Census Act, any information compiled by a
census officer under that Act, and for that purpose may require the Census
Commission to communicate to the Chief Registration Officer such information;
(f) any
information furnished to the Chief Registration Officer by any person who is or
claims to be entitled to have the name of that person entered in a Register of
voters in an electoral area; or
(g) such
other information as the Chief Registration Officer may obtain from a house to
house or other sufficient inquiry.
(h)
information contained in any previous register of voters.
(3) The
information acquired under subsection (2) (a) to (g) shall only be
used for the preparation of a register of voters and shall not be divulged or
communicated to any person otherwise than in the performance of the functions
under this Act.
(4) The Chief
Registration Officer may, on information referred to in subsection (2) , revise
not less than once[…]”
“(5) The register of voters prepared or
revised under subsection (1) or subsection (4) shall contain
(a) names of
persons who on 1st January of the year for which the register is prepared or
revised are entitled to be registered as voters;”
“Certification
of register
9.
(1) The Chief Registration Officer shall, after all claims, objections and
appeals have been concluded under section 8, amend the register of voters for each electoral area accordingly
and certify the registers.
(2) The registers
of voters certified under subsection (1) shall be the registers for the purposes
of the election or the referendum held in any period prior to the next
following certification of the registers under that subsection.”
Having produced
the law and the duty cast on your office please tell the people of Seychelles
whether List of voters certified by you is correct and credible.
We all await your
response.
Yours sincerely
Alexia G. Amesbury
