At the invitation of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), the Organizer of this Conference, two representatives from the Media namely Seychelles Media Commission (SMC) and AMPS along with a delegation from the Electoral Commission and two members from the National Assembly participated in the Regional Conference held in Madagascar from 30th August – 1st September, 2023. The SMC was represented by Board Member, Mrs. Rosemary Elizabeth.

Mrs Elizabeth 1

The aim of this Regional Conference was for COI to strengthen collaboration it’s with Indian Ocean member States for sharing of experiences on good practice, knowledge on important and complex issues connected with Election process. The conference was organised as part of preparations for upcoming elections in the region, starting with Madagascar in November 2023, Mauritius in 2024 and Seychelles in 2025. The Electoral Commission, Political parties and the Media are the three main actors in the election processes. They were therefore were brought together in the hope of assuring that they work to establish good Governance practices which could bring about Peace, Stability in the Indian Ocean Region during the election process. 

The Opening Ceremony was presided by the Secretary General, Prof. Marimoutou and officially opened by Mr. Mohammad Rahman, President of the Regional Electoral network of the Indian Ocean Commission. Addressing the Conference were other dignitaries including Ambassadors and past Secretary Generals of IOC. In his Address the Secretary General placed much emphasis not only on peaceful election but also on consolidating a Peaceful Indian Ocean zone, to enable Indian Ocean Islands remain globally a peaceful zone, which is a requirement for development, in spite of other crisis. He called on everyone and each organization to play its role to ensure that Peace and stability is maintained and added to remind us that this has much to do with Good Governance, facilitation and exchange of good practices among ourselves. Finally he asked for Island States collaboration with IOC in this process.

The main recommendations of the Conference were as follows:

  • That the Medias are well prepared and played an important role to ensure transparency and peace during election by providing much information but thus at the same time ensuring that journalists are well trained to show impartiality and to provide the right information at all time for the benefit of voters.
  • Regulatory body like SMC need to exist in the Regions to guide in the election process and to provide training that would assist Media with coverage of pre-election events.
  • Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) were requested to play a pro-active role in the process to ensure that the community are well prepared for election. They called on greater involvement of CSO’s in term of training as preparedness for voters’ education and for such training to reach out to the Community.