11 August 2016
The CEPS and EU funded project ‘Building capacity for citizens participation in the democratic process and good governance in Seychelles’, has officially been launched this afternoon.
The honor of launching the project was given to the British High Commissioner Mrs Caron Röhsler, the current representative of the EU in the country. In her remarks, she noted that it is the first project of its kind by civil society, aimed at improving people’s understanding of the elections process. She reiterate the message which was shared at the EU meeting held in June with CEPS, whereby representatives spoke of the EU’s firm stand on the issue of rule of law and human rights.
In his opening remarks, the CEPS Chairman Mr Jules Hoareau pointed out that the project comes at an opportune time with the upcoming parliamentary elections. He reinforced on the importance of the role of citizens to educate their fell countrymen on their rights and responsibilities. Mr Hoareau called upon all members of civil society to get involved so that they all benefit from this project.
Through this project, CEPS intends to increase fairness, transparency and civic participation in the democratic elections process in Seychelles.
More specifically, the project aims at building civic awareness and capacity in order to ensure civic participation; and increasing fairness, ethics and transparency in the electoral process via civic education and training.
The project outcomes are expected to be train 15 persons in civic education with special emphasis on election process; 75% of electorates of 25 Districts of Mahe, Praslin & La Digue are significantly educated on human rights, good governance and voter’s rights.
The platform will make available information in print and electronic form, with the hope educating citizens and raising awareness on civic and voters education. The platform will also hold educational activities. The platform will also train 50 local election observers, updating them on election processes.Also, 50 more local election observers will be trained and certified to observe the electoral process effectively, adding to the existing trained observers from Association for Rights, Information and Democracy (ARID) and Citizens Democracy Watch Seychelles – CDWS – both accredited members of CEPS.
As part of the training, CEPS will conduct a 6 day training for political parties on their rights and obligations in the electoral process as well as on changes in relation to the electoral reform.
The project will run for a period of one year, starting today.
