Presidential elections run-off to be held

With no outright winner in Seychelles’ presidential election, the country will hold a rerun vote between the two main contenders, the electoral authority said Sunday. According to Inside Politics, opposition figure Patrick Herminie received 48.8% of the vote, while the incumbent, Wavel Ramkalawan, garnered 46.4%. A candidate needs to win more than 50% of the vote to be declared the winner. The date for the rerun election is yet to be announced. Herminie represents the United Seychelles party, which dominated politics for decades in the country before losing power five years go. It was the governing party from 1977 to 2020. Trying to prevent United Seychelles from returning to power, Ramkalawan seeks a second term as the leader of Africa’s smallest country. His governing Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party campaigned on economic recovery, social development and environmental sustainability. The 115-island archipelago in the Indian Ocean has become synonymous with luxury and environmental travel, which has bumped Seychelles to the top of the list of Africa’s richest countries by gross domestic product per capita, according to the World Bank. But opposition to the governing party has been growing.

A week before the election, activists filed a constitutional case against the government, challenging a recent decision to issue a long-term lease for part of Assomption Island, the country’s largest, to a Qatari company for a luxury hotel development, Inside Politics reports. The lease, which includes reconstruction of an airstrip to facilitate access for international flights, has ignited widespread criticism that the agreement favours foreign interests over Seychelles’ extended welfare and sovereignty over its land. Another concern for voters was a growing drug crisis fuelled by addiction to heroin. A 2017 UN report described the country as a major drug transit route, and the 2023 Global Organised Crime Index said that the island nation has one of the world’s highest rates of heroin addiction.