Seychellois parliamentary election, 2016

Seychellois parliamentary election, 2016

8–10 September 2016

All 33 seats in the National Assembly 17 seats were needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Roger Mancienne James Michel Party LDS PP Last election – 31 seats, 88.56% Seats won 19 14 Seat change New 17 Popular vote 30,444 30,218 Percentage 49.59% 49.22% Swing New 39.34%

Composition of parliament

Parliamentary elections were held in Seychelles from 8 to 10 September 2016.^[1] Three parties and three independent candidates ran for the 25 directly-elected seats.^[2] The result was a victory for the opposition Linyon Demokratik Seselwa alliance, which won 19 of the 33 seats.^[3] It was the first time since the 1993 elections that the People's Party did not win a majority of seats.^[4]

Electoral system

Members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods; 25 are elected from single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting, and up to a further ten are elected based on the percentage of votes received by each party; for each 10% of the total national vote received, a party gets one additional seat.^[5][6]

Campaign

The four main opposition parties (the Seychelles National Party, the Seychellois Alliance, the Seychelles Party for Social Justice and Democracy and the Seychelles United Party) formed a coalition, Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) in order to contest the elections, having boycotted the 2011 elections,^[7] which saw the People's Party win all 31 seats.

The Seychelles Patriotic Movement nominated 23 candidates for the 25 constituency seats, whilst three independent candidates also ran.^[3]

Conduct

Two international observer groups have confirmed their presence during the election, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU). The SADC observer team of 19 members hail from eight SADC member countries and will cover all 25 constituencies.^[8] While the AU is sending a historic observer team of women-only observers. The women only observer team is led by Fatuma Ndangiza and they will be present in the country from 1 to 15 September.^[9]

Two local observer groups, the Citizens Democracy Watch Seychelles (CDWS) and the Association for Rights, Information and Democracy (ARID) will also provide feedback.^[8]

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats
			District	Proportional	Total	+/–
Linyon Demokratik Seselwa	30,444	49.59	15	4	19	+19
People's Party	30,218	49.22	10	4	14	–17
Seychelles Patriotic Movement	602	0.98	0	0	0	New
Independents	128	0.21	0	0	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	1,547	–	–	–	–	–
Total	62,939	100	25	8	33	+2
Registered voters/turnout	71,932	87.50	–	–	–	–
Source: Seychelles News Agency

References

1. Ngowi, Deus. "President Magufuli forms new SADC security organ to observe Seychelles parliamentary elections". Daily News. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
2. "Fourth party – Seychelles Patriotic Movement -- prepares to contest September parliamentary elections". M3 Web. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
3. Opposition coalition -- LDS -- wins Seychelles' National Assembly in historic electoral transition Seychelles News Agency, 11 September 2016
4. LDS supporters celebrate Seychelles' election victory; party leaders agree on unity call Seychelles News Agency, 11 September 2016
5. Electoral system Inter-Parliamentary Union
6. Seychelles : Constitution and politics The Commonwealth
7. Seychelles IFES
8. "Seychelles gearing up for the polls". ETN. 3 September 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
9. Oluwagbemi, Ayodele (1 September 2016). "AU approves "women-only" election observers to Seychelles". Punch Newspapers. Retrieved 4 September 2016.