(4 minutes read)
· Voters in Seychelles had cast their ballots in the presidential and parliamentary elections
· The present incumbent is president Danny Faure and has been in power since 2016. Faure was not elected but took over after his boss, James Michel, resigned as president
· His main rival is the Anglican priest Wavel Ramkalawan.
· This is the sixth time he is contesting for the post of president and lost by only 193 votes to Michel in the second round of voting in 2015
Voters in Seychelles had cast their ballots in the presidential and parliamentary elections. The elections were spanned over three days. Saturday was the last day of voting. There were 74,600 eligible voters in the country. The archipelago has 98,000 residents. They live mainly on the islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue and the rest of the islands are mostly uninhabited.
The present incumbent is president Danny Faure. He has been in power since 2016. Faure was not elected but took over after his boss, James Michel, resigned as president. The opposition parties are trying to unseat him. His party the United Seychelles has been in power since 1977.
His main rival is the Anglican priest Wavel Ramkalawan. This is the sixth time he is contesting for the post of president. He lost by only 193 votes to Michel in the second round of voting in 2015. This time around voters are concerned about the state of the economy and the impact of Covid-19, which had a heavy toll on the tourism sector of the Island country.
The economy has slowed significantly. Over 700 Seychellois lost their jobs. Although Seychelles is among the highest income bracket in the continent, the national statistics agency says that about 40 percent of Seychellois live in poverty because of the high cost of living. Opposition also highlighted corruption in the system, which during the previous years, has become more evident.
