VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Lalyans Nouvo Sesel (LNS) political party has formally protested a decision by the Electoral Commission of Seychelles (ECS) regarding the allocation of polling agents for outer island voting stations, ahead of the general election due to start on September 25, 2025.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday morning at the party’s headquarters in Bel Ombre, party leader Godfra Hermitte said LNS was not satisfied with the way the ECS had distributed agents among political parties and independent candidates. ‘We have made a protest to the ECS, in relation to polling stations on outer islands, and the allocation of polling agents. This follows a meeting we had with them last Friday. We expected a swift response, but unfortunately, we only received one yesterday. We immediately saw a lot of discrepancies in this decision, and we do not feel that they are respecting the law or fairness in the elections,’ he said.
According to Mr Hermitte, the initial allocation gave nine outer island polling stations each to United Seychelles (US) and Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS), while Seychelles United Movement (SUM) was given a smaller share, leaving LNS and other smaller parties with very limited coverage. The party said it had asked the ECS to reconsider the distribution in the interest of fairness and transparency.
Mr Hermitte added that his party reserves the right to pursue all available legal avenues should the matter not be resolved before polling day. The ECS has not yet issued a public response on the protest. The general election will be held over three days, with outer islands voting first, followed by the inner islands and Mahé.
