Nothing is sacred in politics
The events which have unfolded since the Nomination Day for the 2020 Presidential Elections, have left political analysts firmly entrenched in their belief that in politics nothing is ever sacred. Pillay and Lalyans Seselwa had no qualms in throwing in their lot with United Seychelles after hav-ing decried that party as being corrupt. LDS which is these days just SNP under a new name has suddenly done a runner from its stance of the necessity of having a balance of power in the country.
Seeing its chances of winning the presidential elections as being quite good, LDS has changed from balance of power to cries of – we need a strong government backed by an equally strong Na-tional Assembly. All of a sudden it wants to have its cake and eat it as well – something which the opposition has always accused the ruling party of. LDS has just forgotten or had selective amnesia to the fact that the balance of power of the past four years have given creation to many strong de-mocracy fostering institutions such as the Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Commission and the different others such as the Ant-Corruption Commission (although its successes has been somewhat very limited). These institutions would undoubtedly grow and make the nascent democracy in Seychelles flourish. Yet, the smell of possible victory and the yearning for it is quickly making LDS lose track of all it has hitherto proclaimed as sacred.
Just as it has been resisting all attempts of smaller political parties to exist and prosper in the op-position, to the extent that some people are describing it as the one party opposition; in the same manner it now wants to be the only one calling all the shots – be it in the administrative or in the legislative arm of government. LDS wants an absolute majority in the National Assembly which will railroad other parties and rubber stamp all its plans and strategies; just like it has always ac-cused the SPPF/PL of doing. In effect it wants the country to go back to a scenario of a one party state under the guise of a democracy. This is evidenced by the party’s cry initially for a 70/30 % win, but which has now escalated to one of 90-10%.
In its desperation to achieve this, the party’s leadership continuously disregards health guidelines and organizes mass blitzing in different constituencies, especially those where its support is on shaky ground. Those constituencies are blitzed more than once as is the case with Grand Anse Mahé where the defection from US to LDS of MNA Waven William has not gone down well at all! The less than lukewarm reception William is getting on the ground there has reinforced the fact that the Seychellois vote along party lines more than for individuals!
