Eleventh hour politicking as the National Assembly is dissolved!

As the MNAs wrapped up their work on the Elections Act on the last day of the 6th National Assembly last week there were some desperate eleventh hour political pitch battles between the two sides to see which one would literally have the last word in their debate.There is absolutely nothing wrong with this except that the MNAs chose to confuse the public on a very important issue, which is the right to vote. The reform to the Electoral Act has been going on for over four years now and it is really a desperate ditch attempt to score political points for a party to try and squeeze in a very controversial amendment at the last hour. LDS had proposed in the dying hours of the debate that youths who would turn 18 between the date the electoral register is closed and Election Day, should be listed in an addendum to the register so that they can vote as well. The United Seychelles cohort immediately replied that the youths from 17 years old were on the register previously with specific notations which identified them, so as to prevent those who hadn’t attained voting age from casting their vote; but that this was stopped through an amendment by the opposition itself.

Even if what the US said is true, it had played right into the hands of the LDS by taking this stance. LDS had just wanted to accuse the US of not wanting the youths to vote. In jumping into the foray to reply, the US side walked into the trap with their eyes open. The fact that it was just a trap was confirmed when the Leader of the Opposition closed the debate with a seemingly reasonable approach, in which he admitted that the logistics of doing this would further burden an already beleaguered Electoral Commission. In doing so Ramkalawan came out as the voice of reason settling a dispute, when in fact it was always a bait which the US team swallowed line, hook and sinker!LDS is not happy with the dissolution of the National Assembly, especially as its own line-up of candidates is not yet finalized and it knows that the presence of the smaller parties in the election would bring a splitting of votes which could be to its disadvantage.