The Electoral Commission of Seychelles announced on Sunday that the country will hold a runoff between the two main contenders in the presidential election after no candidate secured an outright majority.
According to official results, opposition candidate Patrick Herminie won 48.8% of the vote, while incumbent President Wavel Ramkalawan received 46.4%. A candidate must secure more than 50% to win outright. The date for the runoff has not yet been announced.
Herminie represents the “United Seychelles” party, which dominated the nation’s political scene for decades before losing power five years ago. The party ruled from 1977 until 2020.
Ramkalawan, meanwhile, is seeking a second term as president of Africa’s smallest country, in an effort to prevent “United Seychelles” from returning to power. His ruling “Seychelles Democratic Union” party campaigned on a platform focused on economic recovery, social development, and environmental sustainability.
Early voting began last Thursday, though most voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
The Seychelles archipelago, made up of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean and home to 120,000 people, has become a symbol of luxury and eco-tourism, placing it at the top of Africa’s wealthiest nations in terms of GDP per capita. Its islands cover nearly 390,000 square kilometers of ocean, making it one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, including rising sea levels, according to the World Bank and the UN Sustainable Development Group.
The country also faces a growing drug abuse crisis. A 2017 UN report described Seychelles as a key transit point for drug trafficking, while the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index stated the island nation has one of the world’s highest rates of heroin addiction.
Critics argue that Ramkalawan has largely failed to tackle the drug crisis, while his rival Herminie also faces criticism for failing to reduce addiction rates during his tenure as head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation between 2017 and 2020.