The president’s office announced that in 2018 there will be no elections for district council in Seychelles. Instead, the island nation will have seven regional councils.
The decision was made after consulting with the public on the subject of local government elections as well as bipartisan consensus at national political level and after taking into account all the costs of running councils in each of the 26 districts.
The districts will be divided into seven regional administrative regions representing North, South, East and west Mahe, two councils for Central Mahe and one for the inner islands.
Roger Mancienne said that just having a district council was not practical and it needed much resource, which is why they decided that having regional councils would be easier to manage and more effective.
Not everybody welcomed the new decision and the association for Rights, Information and Democracy (ARID) feels that ordinary people will miss an opportunity to get involved and have a say in the district’s development.
A spokesperson of the association said that there are already politicians in the National Assembly and he believes that now the two ruling parties will nominate their own people to sit on the councils and this will lead politicians to have their say everywhere. They will not consider the voice of private citizens.
He added that they want an election because it is a democratic and fair way to get local people to elect their own representatives.
The State House announced that district administration offices will continue to operate in each district even though as executive arms of their respective regional councils.
