St. Louis – Suspected Dirty Election Tactics by the Indian Community

Confirmation has been received directly from Mr. Zotik Pragassen, Principal of the Independent School, of an out-rageous smear campaign against Mr. Holbert Jean, the independent candidate for St. Louis District in the forthcoming National Assembly elections.

Mr. Jean, a popular teacher at the Independent School, was accused of “improper touching” of students at the school. The Police were called in to inter-view the children and totally against all protocol, they interviewed the children behind closed doors, without the presence of their parents or a legal representative.

After a tip-off and subsequent inquiry into the matter, Mr. Pragassen was approached and was finally persuaded to admit that the pupils questioned stated to Mr. Pragassen that Mr. Jean had never treated them in any improper way. All of the pupils, St. Louis – Suspected Dirty Election Tactics by the Indian Community that is, except the pupils of Indian origin. Under further pressure, Mr. Pragassen confessed that it was the parents of the Indian pupils who he believed had been behind this smear campaign.

Many will remember that Mr. Ramkalawan shocked the electorate in the elections five years ago, by issuing a set of thirteen promises, written in Tamil of benefits specifically for the In-dian Community, including a seat in his Cabinet and Parliament, not appealing to all voters as Seychellois, but singling out one sector of the community to whom he offered special favours, if he became elect-ed. He did not offer special favours to Catholic Seychellois, or to Seychellois of African origin or any other social group.

Now Mr. Ramkalawan has put forward Mr. Satyanarayan Naidu, nephew of a prominent member of the Indian Seychellois business community, as the LDS’ candidate for St. Louis, a constituency which Mr. Ramkalawan formerly held. Satyanarayan has been seen in the media giving a fiery speech in Tamil, unintelligible to most Seychellois. In playing the “In-dian Card” yet again to try to win the large block of votes of the Indian Community, it appears that Wavel is prepared to fuel the already growing divide be-tween Seychellois of Indian origin and non-Indian Seychellois. Seychelles has always prided itself on being a harmonious and closely-knit multi-ethnic and multicultural society. Mr. Ramkalawan seems to be pre-pared to use cultural differences as currency, to the detriment of the harmony of the wider community, to get himself into pow-er at any cost.

Will Wavel Ramkalawan stop at nothing to win power in the forthcoming elections, after having failed for so many years to be elected as President and even having to be given a proportional seat so he could be the current un-elected Leader of the Opposition?. It seems that during the last round of elec-tions no-one wanted him any-where in the country’s govern-ment. Many see these elections as his last chance in politics and believe he is desperate. Is he prepared to sacrifice national Mr. Holbert Jean (right), Mr. Zotik Pragassenunity and use schoolchildren as pawns to achieve this? Is this the sort of man who should lead our country?