“The December 3-5 presidential election in Seychelles was conducted in an atmosphere of peace, order and transparency and largely met the standards set out in international instruments for the conduct of democratic elections. However there is room for improvement.”

This observation forms part of preliminary statements released by the international election observation missions after the first round of the 2015 presidential election.

The missions urged the people of Seychelles to continue to conduct themselves peacefully during the second round until the end of the process.

The final statement of the mission will be released on December 20, 2015.

The statements were released by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observation Mission (SEOM); the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM); the Commonwealth Observer Group; the Electoral Commission Forum of SADC Countries (SADC-ECF); the Indian Ocean Commission and the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) at Avani Hotel, Barbarons on Monday afternoon.

Present were stakeholders like representatives of political parties, civil society, local election observers and the electoral commission.

In her statement, the head of mission of SEOM, deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Mozambique, said electoral observation within the African region has been a practice of SADC member states which has enabled democracy to be deepened through the participation of citizens in political and decision-making processes.

Regarding the Seychelles presidential election, SEOM observed that “polling stations opened on time but the process of registration of names on special votes cast impacted on opening and closing times; presiding and electoral officers, observers, party agents, other observers and police officers were present; the layout of most polling stations promoted easy flow in the voting process; all citizens providing their IDs and duly registered were able to vote; most polling stations closed on time and those still in queues at the formal closing were also able to vote; there were no incidents of violence, counting at most polling stations started after closing and the electoral officer transmitted the statement of the result to the electoral commissioner”.

She urged the people of Seychelles, political leaders and all stakeholders to continue to demonstrate a sense of responsibility, political tolerance, full participation and engagement in the coming second round.

SADC-ECF raised some issues expressed by stakeholders and engaged the electoral commission towards them. It commended the running of the process which include closing and counting, lessons learnt and good practices and issues regarding the voter’s register.

The exercise of redistributing ballot papers from advanced voting to the electoral districts seems superfluous in a presidential poll, while the amendments to the electoral laws were not timely, it observed.

The mission concluded that there is a need to strengthen communications between the Electoral Commission and its stakeholders.

The mission also made some recommendations to improve the process but overall commended stakeholders for their contribution towards creating a conducive environment to credible elections.

The African Union also commended the process but also observed some deficiencies that need to be addressed. But they also lamented that they could not observe voting on outer islands due to lack of transportation, remandees who could not vote because their names were not on the voters’ register and the closing and counting were often very slow due to the high number of ballots to be to be counted at each polling station. It pledged its continued support to the democratic process of Seychelles.

The Commonwealth Observer Group also congratulated the election process and said based on their observation and exchanges with a broad range of stakeholders, the election was peaceful, generally well conducted and transparent.

The SADC Parliamentary Forum described the election process as peaceful and calm and that it was conducted in a conducive and peaceful environment. The Seychellois people were given the opportunity to freely express their will in voting for the candidate of their choice.

The Indian Ocean Commission also revealed the election was held in conducive climate and described the process as “very transparent”.

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