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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth Experts for Seychelles Presidential Election

19 July 2006

Commonwealth experts appointed by Secretary-General Don McKinnon to be present for the Presidential Election in the Seychelles will begin work on Thursday, 20 July 2006.

The experts are:

Mr O J Jallow
Acting Secretary-General & Party
Leader, People's Progress Party
The Gambia

Ms Linnette Vassell
Community development & gender specialist &
Chair, Women's Resource Centre
Jamaica

Mr Mooroogessen Veerasamy PDSM
Principal Electoral Officer
Mauritius

The Team will be assisted by two members of staff from the Commonwealth Secretariat, Mr Martin Kasirye and Ms Sabhita Raju.

The experts will be briefed by the Electoral Commissioner, representatives of political parties, civil society organisations, Commonwealth diplomats and other election observers. They will observe preparations for the Presidential Election; the polling, counting and results processes; and the overall electoral environment.

The decision to send the Commonwealth Expert Team follows an invitation from the Electoral Commissioner. The Secretary-General sent members of staff for the 2001 Presidential Election. A Commonwealth Observer Group was present for the Presidential and National Assembly Elections (organised jointly with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) in March 1998. Observer Groups were also sent to the Presidential and National Assembly Elections of July 1993 and to both the Elections to the Constitutional Commission and the Referendum on the draft Constitution in 1992.

Note to Editors

Members of the Expert Team will remain in the Seychelles until 5 August 2006. Their report will be submitted to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who will in turn send it to the Government of the Seychelles, the Electoral Commissioner, the political parties and all Commonwealth governments. The report will then be made public. Members of the Expert Team have been invited in their individual capacities and the views they express regarding the elections will be their own and not those either of their respective Governments or of the Commonwealth Secretariat. For media enquiries please contact Martin Kasirye on +248 595574.

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