Seychellois voters returned to the polls on Thursday for a decisive presidential run-off between incumbent Wavel Ramkalawan and opposition leader Patrick Herminie, as the ruling United Seychelles party seeks to regain full control of government.
Herminie, a former National Assembly speaker, led the first round last month with 48.8% of more than 64,000 votes cast—outpacing President Ramkalawan by just over two percentage points. His party, United Seychelles, already reclaimed a parliamentary majority in the same election, setting up the possibility of a political sweep if he wins the presidency.
“I think the people of Seychelles want a balance of power to get the best deal,” Ramkalawan told Reuters. His Linyon Demokratik Seselwa coalition lost its parliamentary majority, meaning a second term would see him presiding over a divided government.
Voting began Thursday on outlying islands and for essential workers, with the main polling taking place on Saturday across Seychelles’ three largest islands. Results are expected on Sunday.
Ramkalawan, a former Anglican priest, made history in 2020 when he became the first president from outside United Seychelles — formerly the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front — since a coup a year after independence from Britain in 1976. He has campaigned on his record of steering the country’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and promoting Seychelles’ political neutrality to attract foreign investment.
The Indian Ocean archipelago of 115 islands, often described as Africa’s wealthiest nation per capita, is heavily dependent on tourism and foreign investment but remains vulnerable to climate change and has one of the world’s highest per-capita rates of heroin addiction.
Herminie, who was arrested in 2023 on charges of witchcraft that were later dropped, has positioned himself as the candidate of change. He has pledged to lower the retirement age—reversing a reform by Ramkalawan—and to halt a controversial hotel project that environmentalists say threatens a UNESCO-listed coral atoll.
Buoyed by endorsements from candidates eliminated in the first round, Herminie told supporters at a rally, “We needed just 1% to win State House. That means 500 votes — and we will get them on October 11.”
A victory for Herminie would return United Seychelles to power for the first time since 2015, ending Ramkalawan’s four-year presidency and restoring the party’s dominance over both the executive and legislative branches.
Source:Africa Publicity
