SNP's Reaction to the Court of Appeals Decision on the PDM Case

DECISION OF COURT OF APPEAL IN PDM CASE REWRITES THE CONSTITUTION

The decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of the Popular Democratic Movement is devoid of legal justification and totally ignores the key provisions of the Constitution regarding the matter of the case. In this decision, the Judges of the Court of Appeal, JJ Macgregor, Twomey and Fernando, have not interpreted the Constitution as it exists, they have written their own. These Judges have decided that the wording of the Constitutional amendment is not suitable and they have made their own amendment. 


   
James Michel with Twomey

McGregor, James Michel and Fernando

In its decision, delivered on December 9, 2011, the Court of Appeal found that the PDM was entitled to a proportionally elected seat in the National Assembly from the result of the general election held on October 1, 2011 because it had obtained over 10% of ‘valid votes’. It thus reversed the majority decision of the Constitutional Court given by CJ Egonda-Ntende and J Gaswaga and of the Seychelles Electoral Commission that the Constitution allocates proportionally elected seats on the basis of total ‘votes cast’ . The decisions of these institutions could have been overturned only with clear Constitutional basis which the Court of Appeal has not been able to provide.
  
Chief Justice Egonda-Ntende (his sound judgement overturned)

The Constitution makes very clear and specific distinction between the allocation of seats to directly elected members and to proportionally elected members. 

Article 78 of the Constitution states without ambiguity that the allocation of proportionally elected seats shall be as “specified in schedule 4”. 

This Schedule 4 carries the clear tile “Proportionally Elected Members” and deals only with such members. Thus the Constitution clearly sets different rules for the allocation of these seats. The Judges of the Court of Appeal have no basis for saying that the two must be the same.

This Schedule 4 contains the provision that has been quoted so often and which was the basis of the Judgement of JJ Egonda-Ntende and Gaswaga of the Constitutional Court.

“A political party which has nominated one or more candidates in a general election and has polled in respect of the candidates in aggregates 10% or more of the votes cast at the election may nominate a proportionally elected member for each 10% of the vote polled. “

As the two judges of the Constitutional Court stated in their decision, the Constitution has in several instances used the terms ‘votes cast’ and ‘valid votes’ and it is clear that there are two different meanings. ‘Votes cast’ as stated in Schedule 4 is different from ‘valid votes’. 


  
Votes cast means a ballot paper inserted inside the box!

Votes cast can only mean votes that are put in the box. As CJ Egonda-Ntende stated, this is the only possible interpretation. The action of casting the vote comes before any interpretation of the vote as being valid or not. If a vote is invalid, it does not alter the fact that it has been cast.

CAJ Fernando’s statement argues that the Constitution could not have intended to recognise that a person would not vote or would cast an invalid vote. But this is precisely what Schedule 4 does. 



Someone should tell Fernando that a vote cast is the "voice of the voter".

The principle of using total ‘votes cast’ may be misguided. If this is so, then we have to go back and change the Constitution. The Judges have no right to ignore what the Constitution says. 




The Judges of the Court of Appeal have fallen back, as Judge Burhan did in the Constitutional Court Case, on the Elections Act, which prescribes a different method of tallying the votes. But it is very clear that the Elections Act does not apply to Proportionally Elected Seats. 

This is how the Elections Act begins:

Short title and Application 1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Elections Act.

(2) This Act shall apply for the purposes of: -

(a) an election of the President

(b) an election of a directly elected member of the National Assembly

(c) a referendum.

The Act does not include ‘Proportionally Elected Members’ in its stated purpose and makes no mention of proportionally elected seats. In seeking to rest their judgement on it, the Judges are grasping thin air. 

The decision of the Court of Appeal, being so weak in legal justification, undermines the credibility of the Judiciary as the guardian of the Constitution and the law. The decision has grave consequences for our democratic system because it allows the composition of a National Assembly that is not according to the Constitution and by that sets aside the wishes of the electorate. 

The Court of Appeal has, in this ill-considered decision, diminished the credibility of the Constitutional Court, of Chief Justice Egenda-Ntende and of the Seychelles Electoral Commission. 

Seychelles National Party 

MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION ON SEYCHELLES

Response Letter to Seychelles Freedom Party (SFP) On Good Governance of Seychelles

Mo Ibrahim, Sudanese-born British mobile communications entrepreneur, billionaire and founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation

SBC STILL NOT SHOWING SEYCHELLES FREEDOM PARTY PRESS CONFERENCE

Seychelles Freedom Party Press Conference that Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation(SBC) Is Still Not Showing....

The Seychelles Freedom Party Press Conference of national importance that SBC filmed but is not showing in chronological order as per the links below:http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9X6P-_ntP0I&h=VAQEemSDTAQFbtj488G7Qjka3PENOFYc1GLK4pKWV1aPxzA

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCiiInpQQYC0&h=XAQGDQcFlAQHbEpAMI-2C...UynfJDlwJ4VA0WKvIkV4sKjhXA

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzzFk6ehLCwY&h=mAQEGG_kHAQGtI6wpGdhvfNP3DXoAUsT5Me3SQPDrrmgyJQ

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Seychelles Freedom Party

Press Conference Round Table of Political Parties Seychelles

Boycott result of National Assembly has exposed deep challenges for the democratic experiment for the Seychelles.

After the Boycott results, parties asked what next. Seychelles Freedom Party called for round table dialogue with all parties to chart a course forward.

International organizations such as the Commonwealth, Francophonie SADC have urged the government to move forward with “DEMOCRATIC REFORMS” and the Commonwealth in its last report on the May 2011 Presidential elections said” ….after Eighteen (18) years of multi-partism….the Seychelles is yet to make a complete democratic transition”.

Mr. Michel has written to the Election Commission and given the commission mandate to implement “ELECTORAL REFORMS”.

Seychelles Freedom Party welcomes the call for a round table by the Election Commission. We have attended these meetings with the Election Commission and present have been PL represented by Mr. Simon Gill, cc member. SNP has sent Wavel Ramkalawan. DP has sent Ralph Volcere. PDM has attended with Mr. David Pierre.

The mandate of the Election Commission is to assess the need for electoral reforms and make recommendations to Government.

Electoral Reforms are only one small part of DEMOCRATIC REFORMS recommended by the SADC Commonwealth, Francophonie.

The Government of Seychelles has yet to propose a mechanism to move forward with DEMOCRATIC REFORMS, which is much needed in Seychelles today, after Eighteen years of collective neglect of the SPPF PL and SNP in this area.

Examples of abrogation of the Constitution of the 3rd Republic we have to deal with are:

1. Preamble of Constitution insures individual rights are best protected by a democratic pluralist system;

2. Chapter II Curtails the granting of citizenship and we have seen a proliferation of citizenship being granted under the Immigration decree, a one party state law still in place;

3. Provisions to protect from unlawful arrest, detention, without reasonable suspicion has been abrogated;

4. Freedom of Expression under threat;

5. Right to Assemble, abrogated by inaction for over 18 years;

6. Freedom of Movement, restricted on access to beaches;

7. Right to Use and Enjoyment of Property, abrogated;

8. Equal Protection has not been respected and has been abrogated

throughout the last 18 years;

9. The Right To Information abrogated by no FREEDOM OF

INFORMATION ACT in place.

10. State recognizes Right to Health Care- Good health care beyond WHO

minimal standards.

11. Right To Shelter has been promised but not delivered to all Seychellois

only to party supporters;

12. Fundamental duty of all citizens uphold defend constitution and

Implement preamble.

13. Article 49 Interpretation of “Democratic Society”.

14. Article 84 (1) There shall be a Leader of the Opposition who shall be elected from members of the National Assembly.

15. Executive authority of the Republic vests in the Executive.

16. New amendment “Collective responsibility of Cabinet” abrogates Freedom of Expression and Right to hold beliefs contrary to others, Freedom of Association.

17. Article 94 (1) (3)…..The Speaker shall, after consultation with the President and the Leader of the Opposition, determine the order of priority for the presentation of bills to the National Assembly.

18. Article 105(1) provides for salary of Leader of the Opposition.

The proper course of conduct after the results of the election where no party in the opposition participated and PDM obtained less then 10% of the vote to get a seat in the National Assembly, should have been NULL AND VOID the results because it did not meet the minimal mandatory requirements the Constitution of Seychelles.

By proceeding, in action the Election Commission which has validated the results, and the National Assembly, which has sworn itself in without an opposition, has as well ABROGATED the Constitution of Seychelles.

The proper course of action at this time, to rectify this political malaise, is to open dialogue with all parties, but with engagement of high level officials at the Secretary General and Leadership level, to chart a course forward to reassess the Constitution and adopt necessary reforms in light with democratic best practice.

Meetings must be public and open, contributions accepted from all stakeholders, and the final proposed democratic reforms that concern the Constitution be submitted to the people of Seychelles for REFERANDUM approval.

Laws that have to be amended must also be quick listed and so submitted to a new National Assembly for approval.

The existing National Assembly is Ultra Vires and does not meet the minimal requirements of a pluralistic democratic house as required under the Preamble of the Constitution and relevant provisions cited earlier.

We call on Mr. Michel, to set our democratic house in order. We have many challenges ahead, and we cannot face them as a divided country.

In line with this, we must all never forget the overriding principle that has taken our people to where they are today: SESEL POU SESELWA!

AIR SEYCHELLES EX-CEO DAVID SAVY RENDERS HIS VERSION

Air Seychelles Demise as per ex-CEO David Savy (taken off Facebook)

Like many of you I am now more anxious than ever to know what will be the outcome of the re-positioning of Air Seychelles and the consequences of this move. It is a struggle for me not to be emotive or even angry at times but I know from being a trained soldier and Training airline Captain that strong emotions only goes to cloud judgement and leads to bad decisions or skewed judgements.

I appreciate that so many of you and staff are unable to get the full picture because you are not aware of all the FACTS and the real situation is once again clouded by rumours and half truths. This is not right.

Firstly it is very true that the aviation scene especially the European one is a bloodbath and leisure national airlines such as Air Mauritius and Air Seychelles are losing money on European routes.

It is a FACT that HM and ALL the Arab airlines are losing millions on the Seychelles route. Load factors are too low and yields are bad. Not to mention that we have practically no cargo outbound from Seychelles.

We need to understand why HM has got itself in such a situation.

Between 1997 until 2010, or for 13 lucky years the Govt did not ever have to bail out Air Seychelles and as such the airline did not receive a single rupee in subvention.

In 2010 HM received 33 million rupees from the shareholder to go against the purchase of a brand new twin otter which cost around 60 million rupees. This was passed by the national assembly. At the end of the financial year in March 2010 HM had registered a very modest profit of €500'000.

My board and I however warned Ministry of Finance back in 2009 that going forward that Air Seychelles would need huge subventions because it had been announced that Emirates , Qatar and Etihad were to be given daily frequencies after a powerful lobby from many in Seychelles especially the trade. We met with Ministry of Finance and documented our concerns. They called for a number of audits of the company.

There was firstly a Management Audit by PEMD Ministry of Finance, then an audit by Ernst & Young, France requested by IMF followed by a specialist Aviation audit by an American firm named GRA. The findings were shared with HM staff and GRA confirmed that HM was a well run company and no financial irregularities were discovered by any of those audits.

The HM board were told that because of the IMF program not to expect any Financial help. This is when we at the airline went out aggressively to look for acmi charters in 2009. We were successful and we actually had more demand than what we could effectively do. The first was the Falklands in Feb 2010 then the Mozambique, however the Mozambique was to start in April 2011 as we could not start earlier due to crew training etc... From April to November 2010 we had registered a loss of € 4 million and cash-flow was tight . We needed a line of credit from the banks to see us through till the Mozambique charter started. Those loses were expected as EK and QR had doubled their frequencies and our market share was decreasing rapidly. No surprises. Ministry of Finance were concerned that the IMF would not allow borrowings by HM and the board of Air Seychelles was changed late December 2010 and the PS Finance, Mr Afif became the vice Chairman of the board to ensure that changes were implemented and that the airline brought back into profit.

DESTINATION ABU DHABI ONCE AGAIN FOR PRESIDENT MICHEL

SEYCHELLES PRESIDENT - OFF TO ABU DHABI AGAIN

President Michel has flown to Abu Dhabi (his second home) to inaugurate the first diplomatic mission and tourist office in the United Arab Emirates. He is accompanied by Jean-Paul Adam the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alain St. Ange CEO of Seychelles Tourist Board and of course an entourage of bodyguards.


President Michel                                    Jean-Paul Adam                                      Alain St. Ange

Good old faithful Ambassador Dick Esparon awaits the delegation in his plush, rent-free furnished office, courtesy of the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as the new Ruler of Seychelles, the Ruler of the Kingdom of La Misere on Mahe, the Ruler of the Seychelles Coast Guards, the Ruler of the Seychelles Desalination Plants and Electricity Grid, the Ruler of the Radiology Centre and ex-Victoria Hospital (now called Seychelles Hospital to please the good Sheikh), the Ruler of Victoria Urban Planning Development and of course the Ruler of our Immigration Department (by decree to remove our Coco-de-Mer stamp from the Seychelles Passport as he found it offensive).



Sheikh Khalifa - Ruler of Abu Dhabi and the Seychelles / The offensive Coco-de-Mer Seed

In 2012, wind turbines donated by our Ruler Sheikh will be churning wind into electricity right at the entrance of Port Victoria.  We wonder who will pay for the maintenance of those Masdars Don Quixote windmills?  And what a wonderful aesthetic sight this will be for our tourists on their way to visiting a once pristine marine park.  Eyesore galore! But who cares about our beautiful Victoria Harbour, as it will soon change its name to "The Khalifa Harbour"?  Lest we forget, the urban planners in Abu Dhabi are working diligently to develop a new design for our small capital Victoria, courtesy of the generous Sheikh. Will it still be called Victoria?  Who knows?  But what we do know is that a new mosque to house thousands of Islam followers is already on the plan, and the huge speakers to be installed in the minaret will be bigger than our clock tower so that the sound can dwarf our Catholic church bells.  But this good-hearted Sheikh not only lords over us and our sycophant President, but he loves our country so much that he is now making it his own.  Joe Samy's "Victoria, la klos St. Fidel" will soon be history, along with any remnants of the British Empire to make way for our new Arab Ruler.

  
Wind turbines for Victoria Harbour. Bye Bye Old "Far" Lighthouse

Hopefully, during South-East monsoon, the wind turbines will blow the foul tuna-canning factory smell towards the new Sheikh Khalifa Coast Guard Centre, and we hope this does not disturb the Imam in the minaret and the prayers at the new Coast Guard mosque and canteen which can no longer serve pork.  During North-West monsoon, we hope that the turbines will blow the smell away from the Providence rubbish dump site up towards the hills of La Misere where the chic Sheikh has build his castle. After all, the Sheikh caused the "Delo Kaka" incident while he was building the monstrosity on top of La Misere whilst breaking all the Housing and Planning regulations, so maybe he can get a "taste" or at least a smell of his own medicine in the coming years. Revenge is sweet.


Sheikh Khalifa's Castle on top of La Misere, Mahe, Seychelles - Our landscape ruined forever

Meanwhile, back in Victoria Seychelles, Barclays Bank has announced restrictions on foreign exchange and as Joel Morgan the Minister of Lapire told us last week during his shady Air Seychelles fiasco interview, foreign exchange is becoming scarce as Air Seychelles was draining the country's coffers. A bunch of lies as usual, but I guess one can forgive the Pinnochio Minister as it is his usual style to lie to the people and place blame elsewhere. His nose is now longer than the Sheikh's robe.

One wonders how much foreign exchange President Michel and entourage took with them to Abu Dhabi?  Or is the generous Sheikh Khalifa footing the bill? I also wonder if the first class tickets on Etihad were free, or if they were paid for by the Seychellois taxpayers.

In summary, I quote a blogger who recently posted this comment on our STAR Seychelles site:

"All this is a sad joke.
Our land all going to arabs.
Our economy depends on arabs.
Our airline has gone to arabs.
Our defence depends on arabs.
Our jobs depend on arabs.
What next????
More coming.And some people take offence when we say that James Michel is taking us for monkeys?"

More Seychelles Jokes

READ, LAUGH AND THEN WEEP (then pray for our country).





Assembly appoints Waven William as an ambassador! God help Seychelles.

Wavem William - Red shirt and all

Etihad, Emirates and Qatar step in to recruit staff from Air Seychelles

Etihad, Emirates and Qatar to hold a job fair for Air Seychelles staff. That's right, our loyal staff will now have to leave their families behind and move to Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai to live and earn a living. Thank you James Michel, Joel Morgan and David Savy.

     
The three Moustached Musketeers - Hard at work bankrupting our national airline and lying to the people.

And finally, Electoral Commission invites reform proposals.

Hear hear....The Electoral Commission yesterday said it is inviting "all stakeholders to submit their proposals for electoral reforms in writing".

  
Hendrick Gappy - Electoral Commissioner appointed by Michel his Master.

  

Yeah yeah yeah.... A few months too late don't you think, given that the Presidential and Legislative Assembly elections are now over.

Gappy, you are as corrupt as your master James Michel.  The lack of democratic and electoral reforms in Seychelles is due to your colluding with Michel and Party Lepep. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Joke going around Victoria Seychelles

LATEST JOKE TO BE HEARD ALL AROUND VICTORIA SEYCHELLES - PASS IT ON

  

Last Saturday afternoon in Victoria, an aide to President James Michel visited a priest at the Catholic cathedral.  She told the Bishop that the President would be attending the next day's Mass, and she asked if the priest would kindly point him out to the congregation and say a few good words that would include calling James a saint.

The Priest replied, "No. I don't really like the man, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of his views. Plus, he took part in the violent Coup D'etat that killed people, including the brother of an Anglican priest. He also tried very hard to destroy the church and also got rid of all the nuns at Regina Mundi convent and the Brothers of Christian Instruction at the Seychelles College. This president is an atheist and only pretends to be a Catholic."

James' aide then said, "Look, I will write a cheque here and now for a donation of SR500,000 to the church if you'll just tell the congregation you see President Michel as a saint."

The good priest thought about it and said, "Well, the Church can definitely use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon."

As the aide promised, President Michel appeared for the Sunday worship and seated himself prominently at the forward left side of the centre aisle, along with soon to be wife number three and a few red-eyed, tequila-smelling ministers in tow.

As the Bishop promised, at the start of his sermon he pointed out that Mr. Michel was present.  The Bishop went on to explain to the congregation: 

"While President Michel's presence is probably an honour to some, the man is not numbered among my personal favourite personages. Some of his most egregious views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and he tends to flip-flop on many other issues. He is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb-sucker, and a nit-wit. He is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must say, President Michel is the worst example of a Christian I have ever personally witnessed. He is corrupt and has used State money to lie to the people just to remain in power. He also has a reputation for liking Muslims over his own Seychellois kind and shirking his representative obligations. He does not believe in justice and is more corrupt than Rene and Mukesh put together. The man is simply not to be trusted and I believe he might be a converted Muslim based on the number of visits to Abu Dhabi lately."

The Bishop concluded, ”But, compared to Joel Morgan, the man is definitely a Saint."  

The aide, Michel, Bastienne and Morgan all fainted!  L'eau de carme anyone?

The Seychelles Column - By Christopher Gill

Communists In A Panic Over Piracy Threat

   

Somali Pirates

One moment we do not negotiate with pirates, than the next moment, the President James Michel says we will negotiate. Soon after, Joel Morgan, Minister of Homeland Security ( a title that is overpowering for the under accomplished chap), says that we will not negotiate with pirates, but we are talking with them.

     

The Smart Negotiators aka Pirate Experts

Immediately, after that statement was made Minister Morgan then made another announcement this week, saying that he is importing Gurhkas to man ships for Seychelles. He says that it will be a costly effort and he will ask stakeholders to contribute to the effort. How cute. His words, sounded like a Boy Scout leader telling the troops that the Boy Scouts will provide basics but you must see to it that your Mommy packs your lunch. After listening to Minister Morgan, I was deflated beyond explanation. Here is why.

Ghurkas in Seychelles to fight pirates

UK Prime Minister Smells Blood at Commonwealth Conference

As James Michel went begging for a few more boats, a few more planes a few more bullets and so forth under the guise of being a helpless small island state leader, at the Commonwealth Leaders Conference, the UK Prime Minister, smelled the opportunity the piracy menace in the Gulf of Aden was creating by Seychelles sleeping on the job in terms of thinking laterally on the matter. The UK is outfitting men trained in security, to place on ships going through the Gulf of Aden under private security arrangements. This creates a new industry, and shifts the insurance burden for ransoms to the private security firms, not the government.

Over 100,000 ships run through the Gulf each month. At $1,000.00 per day, per security personnel, this means big bucks are being made in our waters and PL has been asleep over the matter. For years I have written on the matter, but now, with the attacks in Lamu, Kenya recently and others, the matter is not an issue merely  income generation or cost cutting to outfit our own companies with our own people, to earn money. The pirates now are attacking land beach positions and taking tourists from their rooms. With such bold aggression before us, we must outfit our own people to stand a chance against these pirates.

More Mercenaries Not The Answer

Minister Morgan is looking to Gurhkas again to solve his problems. We all know the results of the use of Gurhkas at our prison at Anse Royale. This is a knee jerk strategy thought out by  a half wit at best.

Seychellois that ply the seas, need to be trained to defend themselves . What should have been done is Morgan take immediate steps implement a program to train our fishermen and merchant navies, to use weapons, check them out, check them in, and give them the dignity of standing up for themselves in the face of a piracy scourge that will only get worse for the next 15 years. How many Gurhkas does Minister Morgan intend on bringing to Seychelles?

Ironically, the Minister told us that the Gurhkas will not be here until the end of the year. It sounds like as of yesterday, literally, he did not even know their names yet.

The same Delo Kaka Morgan.

We can expect more hostage taking with a Minister openly thinking on SBC like that. It is a shame that SBC loads these interviews on the internet for the pirates to watch. James Michel should call on Morgan to submit his resignation before the next hostage taking takes place.  

Incidentally, under Minister Morgan, we have nearly 800 theft or criminal incident reports per month, for a population of 83,000. Crime has doubled from past years. In Mauritius, a country with a population of 1.2 million , has 1,200 reports of incidents per month.

The only person who thinks Minister Morgan is doing a brilliant job, is probably Minister Morgan himself. He has had to place security surveillance cameras all around his house, as a consequence of what he seems to believe….of his successful tenure at Homeland Security.

May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!