VICTORIA, Seychelles — Voting on the outer islands took place over two days, with the first day on Thursday reserved for eight islands: Astove, Assomption and Farquhar, overseen by electoral officer Thomas Dauban; Poivre and D’Arros by Nicholas Shamlaye; Denis and Bird by Justin Mathiot; and Fregate by Charles Loizeau.
The electoral officers collected the ballot papers to be dispatched to the islands at 6am on Thursday at the headquarters of the Electoral Commission of Seychelles (ECS), in the presence of the chief electoral officer Manuella Amesbury, police officers, representatives of political parties and independent candidates, election observers and the media. Due to limited seats on the planes freighted from the Islands Development Company (IDC), only one seat was made available to the local media, specifically the public broadcaster Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and private media house Télésel, which split coverage of the exercise on the eight islands.
At the end of the first polling day on the outer islands, 98 people had cast their votes. On Friday, special polling stations will be operational on Desroches, Alphonse, Coetivy, Platte and Silhouette islands. Voting on the outer islands went smoothly, with an average of about six minutes spent at each special polling station, and a satisfactory experience for both voters and electoral officers.
