TROUKLER
HOW THE SPPF WON?
It was always going to be difficult for the opposition considering what the ruling party had put in place during the last twenty-nine years of authoritarian rule. The very first weapon in their arsenal is none other than the District Administrator (DA), a full time employee of the Ministry of Local Government paid for by the taxpayers working as a full time activist for the ruling party.
After fifteen years of multi-party politics the fusion of the party and the state is as strong as ever before. Shortly before the reintroduction of multi-party, District Council elections was held to install SPPF party functionaries in positions of power and influence at the local level. This structure established more than fifteen years ago remain in place to this very day in the form of the District Administrators. The opposition Members of the National Assembly receive little to no co-operation from the DAs, who take most of their orders directly from ‘Maison du Peuple’.
This is only one in a list of issues which prevented this election from being free and fair. Until the de-linking process is fully endorsed and put in place our democracy will remain the prescription that it is today, administered in small portions.
These are but some of the factors that contributed to the SPPF’s win:
1) Abundant of Resources:
(i) Mostly of an un-transparent origin.
(ii) Casino and other gambling businesses.
(iii) Control of Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB).
(iv) Disbursements of Social Security Funds.
2) Control of the media:
3) Fear:
Atmosphere of fear created by the existence of politically orientated army. The SPDF is larger than the army in
4) Control of Transport:
The Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) has a monopoly over public transport. On days demarcated for political rallies – all buses were allocated to ruling SPPF, which meant that supporters of the Opposition Alliance had to find their own way to attend Opposition rallies.
5) Overseas Seychellois:
Ironically, an estimated 20,000+ Seychellois who fled the country after the Coup of 1977, were not allowed to vote, whilst a lot of “new Seychellois” have over recent years been put on the voting list.