Seychelles United Movement criticism intensified after the party’s leader, Maarco Francis, said SUM aims to remove United Seychelles (US) from office by 2030. He also claimed that Seychelles is returning to a period of dictatorship.
Mr Francis made the remarks in an 11-minute political broadcast published on SUM’s social media platforms. In the video, he criticised several decisions by the government led by President Dr Patrick Herminie.
“When you have the mentality of ‘my way or the highway’, this is dictatorship. And he has already told us, either my way or the highway. And we’re going to see Seychellois will leave their country by force,” Mr Francis said.
SUM endorsed United Seychelles during the second round of last year’s presidential election. However, Mr Francis said the party supported US because it believed both groups shared similar goals.
“We endorsed US because we believe that US had similar plans to promote SUM’s agenda that we had in our manifesto,” he said.
Mr Francis argued that the government had not fulfilled its promises during its first seven months in office. He also raised concerns about the working class and crime levels.
“This is why SUM will continue to be the voice of the people,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Francis described the administration’s performance as “failures after failures”. He criticised what he called a lack of willingness to amend the Constitution to remove policing powers from the military. He also spoke about politicians’ pensions.
“I expected them to bring a motion in the National Assembly whereby all Seychellois will have to earn their pension at the same age. We haven’t seen them do so and today there are the many who is retiring at an older age, and the few retiring at a younger age,” he said.
Mr Francis also commented on the new Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation Bill. He said SUM believes the country is moving backwards.
“We’ve seen today that this administration doesn’t like to be criticised. We’ve seen ‘with us or not with us’ has come back, as said in the last congress, ‘with Seychelles or not with Seychelles’. This means if you criticise the US administration, you don’t love Seychelles. And they want to control SBC to make sure SBC every night broadcasts their message only,” Mr Francis said.
The 11-minute video remains available on the Seychelles United Movement’s social media page.