(Seychelles News Agency) - A sixth political party has been officially registered in Seychelles ahead of the upcoming presidential and National Assembly elections set for September 2025.

The Mouvman Lavwa Seselwa (MLS), or Movement of Seychellois Voices in English, received its registration certificate from the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Seychelles, Danny Lucas, and will now be able to participate in the next national elections.

The party's leader, Keith Andre, said, "Today we are really proud and emotional to receive this certificate, that makes us a legal political party. We are now able to share our programmes and objectives with the people of Seychelles."

Andre said, "What makes us different from other political parties, is that we are focusing our efforts on the National Assembly."

He added that the party does not intend to put forward a candidate for presidential elections and is inviting members of the public with an interest in representing the respective districts to come forward and join them.

The Electoral Commission received the application to register the party, then known as "Lavwa Seselwa" in May and after much deliberations, the party has now been registered. However, there has been a change in its name.

"We worked closely with the Commission throughout this process and saw that our previous acronym LS was identical to that of two parties that had been registered with the Commission before. We were advised to make a change, which is when we decided to go with the new name, which now has the acronym of MLS," explained Andre.

(From left) The members of the MLS party - Keith Andre, Barry Nourrice, Holbert Jean and Guynemer Corgat - were present at the ceremony. (Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

The current party leader explained that the current executive committee has only been put in place to carry out the registration process. The party will soon host its national congress, where everyone will be invited to elect a proper executive committee to carry the party into the upcoming elections and campaign.

Lucas welcomed the new party to the Seychelles' political landscape and said that this is a sign of the development of the Seychelles' democracy, which is something the Commission hopes will continue.

"It is important for all political parties registered with the commission, to engage with all partners to ensure there is a programme to clearly educate the people on how their party can make Seychelles better and what makes them different from other parties, without resorting to slandering, insulting and blaming each other," said Lucas.

MLS joins five other parties that are now registered with the Electoral Commission. These are the ruling party, the Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) or Seychellois Democratic Union, followed by the main opposition party,  United Seychelles (US), as well as One Seychelles, Seychelles United Movement (SUM), and the Seychelles National Alliance Party (SNAP). Furthermore, the Electoral Commission received the application to register a new political party, under the name of Laliberté, or Freedom, on July 31. 

The Electoral Commission recently cancelled the registration of three parties, namely "Lafors Sosyal Demokratik", "Linyon Sanzman" and the Independent Conservative Union of Seychelles (ICUS), after failure to comply with the provisions of the Political Parties Act.