SEYCHELLES REALITY

Now that Nomination Day has passed, it is interesting to note that most LDS candidates do not reside in the districts where they stand for election. Unlike the other parties, notably Parti Lepep and the Seychelles Patriotic Movement (SPM) where most candidates are of proximity, LDS candidates live well away from the electoral areas they wish to represent in the National Assembly. Thus, we have Wavel Ramkalawan, living at St Louis since he got involved in politics in 1992, standing at LDS candidates who live away from their districts English River; Sandy Arissol of BelOmbre standing at St Louis; Nicolas Prea of La Misere standing at Belombre; Patrick Pillay, who lives in his seaside villa at Port Launay, running for Anse Boileau; Wavel Woodcock from Beau Vallon, going for Grand Anse Praslin; Gervais Henrie, also of Beau Vallon, for Mont Buxton. Jean-Francois Ferrari resides at Au Cap, yet stands for Mont Fleuri. Nicolas Prea has since 2002 been elected twice for Belombre. Yet, he ...

Long time SNP activist at Anse Aux Pins Danny Sopha (pictured), who has been dropped in favour of former SPPF MNA Clifford Andre, said he has had enough and is standing as an independent candidate. Sopha, who is also chairman of the Seychelles Artists Federation, stood twice for SNP – in the 2002 and 2007 elections - and came close to winning. “I have lived at Anse Aux Pins for over 20 years and struggled for SNP, and now I am being overlooked to please an outsider”, he told one journalist. He had in the past never been offered a proportional seat, but was given a part-time telephonist job instead, as if he was a little beggar. Outsiders like Gervais Andre came in from nowhere and was given a proportional seat on a golden platter. Apparently, though he knew since June that he was being dropped, Sopha was prepared to remain quiet and not to rock the boat. But one incident was to have a profound impact on him and change his way of thinking dramatically. That was when he was cal...

NP’s Big Daddy Norbert Loizeau, who was elected at Bel Air in 2007 after campaigning with the full backing of outgoing MNA Alain St Ange, now wants him out as a minister. Loizeau, the biggest flower pot in the Assembly from 2007- 2011, is standing again and has sworn that if LDS gets a majority he shall press to have St Ange given the boot. That is typical SNP mentality, always biting the hand that fed them!  Until 2007, Big Loizeau was a mere lightsman at SBC television. He was not even a cameramen in SBC’s filming team.  His entire demeanour points to a poorly educated man. He can hardly speak anything sensible.  What he does not realize is that he owes his post to St Ange. In 2007, Alain St Ange, who had served since 2002, was appointed Hotel Manager of Denis Island Lodge, owned by his sister-in-law Kathleen Mason. Subsequently, he felt he could not stand again for Bel Air for SNP and he told Ramkalawan so. However, this put Ramkalawan and SNP in a pred...

After several articles had been written about Patrick Pillay’s questionable land deals with the Government while he was an SPPF minister for 16 years, he, apparently under pressure from supporters, tried to explain them. But, Pillay has landed himself in a bigger mess trying to justify his corrupted actions. He only succeeded in justifying the swap of land at Pointe Au Sel for Fairview. And even that was not very convincing. He also said he recently purchased a property at Morne Blanc for his son. That is correct. He paid over R1 million from an ex-British guy, Loveth Annacoura. Pillay writes that he exchanged, in 1997, two plots at Pointe Au Sel, totaling 5.5 acres for land of more or less similar size at Port Launay. It was Parcel J1364, one of Seychelles most pristine locations- comprising of a massive plot of 4-5 acres of the Morne Seychellois National Park. He also had sole access to a very secluded beach. On this particular plot he built a villa, almost on the beach, now ...

At the LDS rally recently at Roche Caimen the former SNP MNA for Bel Air commonly known in the district as “flower pot” was given the microphone to say a few words. Norbert is not known for his vocal ability or articulation, hence the nickname “flower pot”. In the five years that he was in the National Assembly he barely spoke – he would have starved if he was being paid according to the number of words he spoke. In fact the few words that he did manage to say were written for him by someone else – even then he struggled to communicate his message. We would have thought that the LDS could put forward someone better to stand at Bel Air with more ability than the “flower pot”. This choice of candidate is the worse insult LDS could have thrown at the electorate in the district of Bel Air. We hope the voters in the district of Bel Air will respond in the same manner. However, the “flower pot” had a few harsh words for the minister of tourism, Mr. Alain St. Ange. According to the big fl...

The East Mahe district of Anse Aux Pins has long been viewed as an electoral bellwether in that it always votes for the winner at elections. Will it be so again this time? At last Sunday’s regional meeting at Anse Aux Pins, President James Michel called it the cradle of the SPUP/SPPF. According to him, Anse Aux Pins will once again remain faithful to the party and vote for the Parti Lepep candidate, Vicky Van Westhuizen (formerly Theresine).  What is sure is that there is a plethora of candidates in that constituency.  LDS is fielding its Secretary Clifford Andre, like Mrs. Van Weshuizen, he has long lived outside the district, before moving in with his in-laws. The other candidates are Sandra Sultan of the newly formed Seychelles Patriotic Movement (SPM), Dave Jeanne from the party led by Martin Aglae, until recently called Linyon Sanzman. They are both rather newcomers to the political arena.  According to reliable information, there are also two independe...

We have finally located the frying pan that Wavel said its wooden handle was getting too hot. This was just after the 2006 presidential election when he had lost yet another election and he had gone to State House to connive with SPPF\PL to provide the National Assembly members with a rise of more than 100% in salary with other benefits. It is important to state that Wavel instructed all SNP National Assembly members at the time to vote in favour of the national budget, which followed in 2007 containing the increment. This was the first and only time that Wavel and co had voted in favour of the budget.  Wavel has since played all kinds of political games until the exorbitant benefit in terms of pension before retirement age provided to him and the others were pulled earlier this year. This move by President Michel has incensed Ramkalawan to the extent that he is now easily comparable to a mad dog. The electorates are starting to doubt the loyalty of Ramkalawan when it comes ...

No one is admitting at this stage to have taken the 12 million plus rupees to sell the presidential election to Parti Lepep. However, after a political broadcast recently on SBC, two candidates in particular have been jumping up and down and the other three have kept silent over the matter of 12 million rupees. In order to get to the bottom of this allegation we are appealing to the Electoral Commission to start an investigation on political funding for the last presidential election, especially. This newspaper will provide some information that can help with the investigation. It is clear that some leaders have come into money, big money during the presidential election of December 2015; a few of them have bought news cars just after the election for themselves and the people around them. An investigation by the Electoral Commissioner is the only way forward. The people need to know the truth in this matter. It is now common knowledge that Seychelles politics has been ...

Ramkalawan and Pillay have issued a joint statement calling on SPM leader Regis Francourt to come up with evidence of them having received R12 million from a prominent construction company late last year. This is a strange development because the accusation was not directed to any of the candidates in particular; in fact it was aimed towards five persons. Three of the candidates have just ignored the comment made by the SPM Leader during a press conference at the Chilli Bar. However, the two who have been shouted the most about other people taking money to work for PL it seems are most offended by his statement. Pillay and Ramkalawan should be the first ones to back up their allegations with evidence, considering they are hurting not just one or two people but several. Regis Francourt stated what was already in the public domain as far as money taken not to unite the opposition against James Michel in the first round of the presidential election. This newspaper has been...

The current brutal election campaign has sparked life into this semi autocracy which we call a democracy. In doing so, it has also given us the voters the opportunity to unmasked all the political parties. While voters know all there is to know about the ruling Parti Lepep (PL), they are now learning about the alternative which on paper seems to be the (LDS). What do we know about the LDS and how scared should we be? LDS is mainly an unholy alliance of the Seychelles National Party (SNP) and the Seychellois Alliance (LS) of Patrick Pillay. They hastily came together in round two of the Presidential elections with the sole intention of toppling James Michel. Statistics show that they could have won the December elections if they had agreed to unite in round one but strangely they could not come to an agreement. It is known that privately, all the leaders of LDS dislike each other. We have since learnt that one opposition leader accepted a bribe of twelve million rupees ...