SEYCHELLES REALITY

After the euphoria of the LDS opposition win, now comes the stark reality of running a country. The complexities of political life in this small country of ours just got a little more complex. How do the two parties work together for the benefit of our country and all our people? Now that the celebrations are over, it is slowly sinking in that Parti Lepep is still in power. James Michel is still the President and that LDS in spite of its five seat advantage, got 226 popular votes more than PL. With just over thirty thousand votes each, it is pretty clear that the country is split down the middle and strictly along party lines. What does that mean for the rest of us? The opposition does not have a big enough majority in the Assembly to effect change without the consent of the President through his power to ‘assent’ Bills. They are not in a position to sanction Ministers or indeed sanction the President. They cannot amend the Constitution. For those knife wielding powers, LDS would h...

Stella Afif is now the undisputed Queen of sleaze with one of the biggest foul mouths in the country; not so long ago she wanted to know if former President Rene was in pampers. We just wonder if her sister would have said the same about the former president. Stella has now gone further with her latest insults directed at her brother-in-law and the Islamic faith, the spiritual faith of her husband. This woman has now stepped out too far with her insults and must be reined back before she does more damage with her lousy mouth. She has managed to push JFF, the King of insults, back down in second place a hard feat to attain. However, Stella Afif is muted on the two pieces of land she bought from government, which this newspaper has been asking her to explain – when government policy only allow for one plot per person, without land. The way in which she executed this fraudulent activity goes to show that the lady a schemer and devious woman. On the 25th March 1994 parcel No. H3013 (...

The first meeting of the newly elected National Assembly has been called for Tuesday, 27th September 2016; it will begin at 9.00a.m. According to the Constitution the speaker of the former National Assembly remain in office until a new one is elected; Dr. Patrick Herminie will preside over the first sitting, which will see the swearing in of the newly elected members. It will be followed with the election of the new speaker and both the outgoing and the newly elected speaker will address the house, followed by a recess. There is a strong possibility that Patrick Pillay will be elected Speaker of the new National Assembly. The second sitting will reconvene after an hour at 10 am on the same day - chaired this time by the new Speaker to elect a leader of opposition and a deputy speaker. The leader of government business is appointed by the President this will also be announced. This will set out the first ever parliament in our political history where the opposition holds the majorit...

Despite the LDS win of 19 seats to 14 seats the ruling Parti Lepep remains in power with James Michel as President until their mandate runs out in four years time in 2020. The LDS victory means however that it will nominate the Speaker of the Assembly, in addition to the Leader of the Opposition. They will be in control of the legislation making body of the country for the next five years. For LDS to bring about radical changes in the Executive, it is necessary to have a 2/3 majority, in other words at least 23 seats. Even then, it could only vote out a President at a time of acute crisis, or gross wrongdoing by the Presidency which would have to be upheld by the Supreme Court. The Speaker is a crucial post as he or she decides what items, such as proposed legislation, motions and questions will feature on the Assembly’s Order Paper. Since 1993, when Ramkalawan was the sole member of the United Opposition (UO) party, the Assembly has been meeting once a week, which is on Tuesday....

History has shown over and over again that many election campaigns and manifesto pledges with all their promises made by the parties leading politicians have turned out to be downright lies and had been nothing more than gimmicks to win voters. When in power the wishes of the people, what they’re supposed to serve, are mainly ignored. The general perception these days is that our political system is highly corrupt. Our leaders are pathological liars even when they are Priests, lacking in genuine caring, thoughtfulness and empathy. So are most other politicians, while remaining spineless, weak and like their leaders, too programmed, brainwashed, arrogant and self-centered to see outside of the grand deception. People voting for the major parties describing it as exercising their so-called ‘democratic right’ while calling abstainers apathetic intending to induce guilt are just plain wrong: Electing one of the major political parties is a way of not only giving your power away, allowi...

According to a reliable source from within her circle the wife of the erstwhile PS for finance Ahmed Afif is now a very angry woman following our article exposing her as a cheat. The lady with a big mouth has gone silent on us and has not said one word to explain her acquisition of more than one plot of land from government and/or to explain the manner in which she did it. We are bringing you here the full story on how Mrs. Afif and her husband executed a devious little plan to fool the system or was it all orchestrated with the full collaboration of their friends in government at the time. Be it as it may Stella is known to be the one who is wearing the pants. In fact she is the one leading the campaign at Anse Etoile for a National Assembly seat for Ahmed. Will the electorate be fooled on the 10th of September by her wicked charm? On the 30th March 1994 Stella bought parcel H3013 from government under her maiden name; later in that same year (28-09-1994) she transferred ½ of that...

Mrs. Afif has been very mischievous – she has been playing a naughty game with Mr. Afif, since 1994, however, maybe not in the sense that you are thinking. They have been swapping more than they should between themselves and now it is out in the open and we are all looking at them stark naked. We are publishing here two titles for two plots of land, which shows that Mrs. Stella has bought two pieces of land from government, when the policy is one plot per person. Maybe there is a good explanation, so we are providing Mr. and Mrs. Didi with an opportunity to provide the public with their version of the story in the name of transparency, accountability and good governance. We will have the full story next week: Source: Independent

As we head into the 2016 Seychelles National Assembly elections an extract from the wikileaks concerning Mr. Afif the Principal Secretary of Finance states: “In 2006, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) explicitly told a USG-funded debt management advisor that GOS would not consider currency devaluation in the immediate future. Furthermore, despite the exasperating effects that overvaluing the rupee had on foreign exchange and GOS’ ability to pay off foreign debt, the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) and MOF Debt Management Team encouraged the USG advisor to focus on domestic debt only…” The cable from the wikileaks. org describes a situation of chronic corruption within the civil service headed by the Ministry of Finance with the Principal Secretary of Finance at the forefront of managing our finances or as in the case pointed out by the wikileaks cables mismanaging our finances. It is important to note that Afif wants to go into the National Assembly on t...

What a let down for opposition supporters! The LDS candidates, many believed were strong, have turned out to be weaklings. Some can hardly speak for just a couple of minutes, without repeating themselves twice or even three times. They were easily outsmarted by the SPM and independent candidates speaking after them. This was clearly borne out to all SBC TV viewers who tuned in last weekend to hear the candidates for Au Cap and Baie Lazare, Baie Ste Anne, Beau Vallon. And Bel Air. At Au Cap, Stephen Pillay was ram-rod stiff reading from a prepared script, presumably written for him by someone else. There was a lot of repetition. In contrast the PL candidate Geralda Desaubin, and the Independent Ralph Volcere, came out relaxed and speaking off the cuff in the open air. Mr. Volcere, for instance, clearly explained how the best way to fight the drugs scourge was to relax restrictions on the use of cannabis, using it for its medicinal virtues and recreation; some countries have al...