Roundup: Seychelles voters elect parliament members

Seychelles voters went to the polls Saturday on the three main islands of Seychelles -- Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, to elect parliament members.

Saturday is the main voting day for the parliamentary elections, but election began Thursday and Friday for special polling stations, said Director General of the Seychelles Electoral Commission Joseph Athanasius.

71,932 voters, including 5,000 expected to vote on Thursday and Friday, were recorded on the voter list by the Seychelles Electoral Commission.

For its population of nearly 93,000 habitants, Seychelles organized the elections for three days because the archipelago in the Indian Ocean has 115 tiny islands.

The first two days, Thursday and Friday, are for a special election for remote islands while the third day, Saturday, is for the main election.

The election was held smoothly as planned, and minor difficulties noted during the checking of voters' names were resolved quickly, the chief of the Seychelles Electoral Commission said.

Some 600 election workers were mobilized by the electoral commission of Seychelles to ensure the smooth running of parliamentary elections.

"If we include the police, the security services, drivers and others, all workers for this election are more than 2,000 people," Athanasius said.

The election in Seychelles is monitored by five international electoral observers -- the Commonwealth, the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Forum of the Electoral Commission from SADC countries and the Commission of the Indian Ocean (COI).

Two local electoral observer groups -- the Citizens Democracy Watch Seychelles (CDWS) and the Association for Rights, Information and Democracy (ARID), are also monitoring the elections.

Seychelles' unicameral parliament has 34 seats but voters elect by direct universal suffrage only 25 members while the other nine will be elected by proportional representation.

Some 100 candidates from three political parties -- the ruling party Lepep, Linyon Demokratik Seselwa, and Seychelles Patriotic Movement, participated in the race.

During the last parliament election held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2011, the Lepep won the absolute majority with 33 seats, while the Popular Democratic movement (PDM) won one seat of the 34 in the national Assembly for five-year term.

This is the sixth election for Seychelles' unicameral parliament since the independence of the country in 1976. Endit