In its effort to boost voter awareness and registration, the Office of the Electoral Commission is conducting voter education and registration exercise at professional centres.
Further to that, special registration exercises are also being conducted in districts and this activity started at Beau Vallon last Saturday. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, only two people had come for registration.
Seychelles NATION spoke to Wilfred Uranie, the chief registration officer, to know more about this activity.
“Experience has showed us that when an activity is planned for a Saturday morning, the turn-out is low as people are busy with their own chores. It is important for new persons to come register and also people who had a change in their name or address. If ever in the coming future there is a by-election or a referendum, automatically the voters list will be closed as we will need to certify the list. If the changes have not been registered by our officers, the person concerned will not be able to vote and will miss the chance of voting. It is important to note that when a new person comes for registration, his/her name will figure in the voting list for the following year when the Electoral Commission will certify the list.”
Currently the voters list is open till December 31 and anyone can contact the Electoral Commission from Monday to Friday to verify their status.
“We call upon the population to seize the opportunity to come pay us a visit when we are in the districts as the Electoral Commission wants to have a comprehensive and up-to-date list as much as possible,” pointed out Mr Uranie.
The outreach programme has already taken place at the National Institute of Health and Social Studies and at the Seychelles Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture. Today and tomorrow the officers of the Electoral Commission will be at the Seychelles Institute of Technology. They will then move to the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces, Seychelles Maritime Academy, Vijay International Praslin, Seychelles Tourism Academy, Seychelles Institute for Teacher Education, Seychelles Business Studies Academy, Seychelles Institute of Art and Design and School of Advanced Level Studies.
Every week, two registration officers, one health officer and the chief registration officer will be present in the following districts: Bel More (Saturday September 11); Glacis (SaturdaySeptember 18; Anse Etoile (Saturday September 25); Port Glaud (Saturday October 9); Grand Anse (Saturday October 16); Anse Boileau (Saturday October 23); Anse Royale (Saturday November 6) and Baie Lazare (Saturday November 13).
Source: Seychelles Nation
