Opposition leader Patrick Herminie wins presidential runoff election in Seychelles

VICTORIA, Seychelles (AP) — Opposition leader Patrick Herminie won the presidential election in Seychelles, defeating incumbent leader Wavel Ramkalawan in a runoff vote, according to official results released early Sunday.

Herminie garnered 52.7% of the vote, with Ramkalawan taking 47.3%, the results showed.

Herminie represents the United Seychelles party, which led the country for four decades before it lost power in 2020. It was the governing party from 1977 to 2020. Ramkalawan, of the governing Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party, sought a second term.

“The people have spoken,” Herminie said in brief remarks after he was declared the president-elect. “I am deeply humbled by the trust the people have placed in me, and I formally accept this mandate with gratitude, a profound sense of duty and an unshakeable faith in the strength and character of the Seychellois people.”

Herminie served as speaker of the national assembly between 2007 and 2016.

A majority of lawmakers in parliament will allow his party “to work collaboratively and constructively to deliver the best possible outcomes for our people,” Herminie said.

The race between the two main contenders in Seychelles’ election was decided in a runoff after there was no outright winner in the presidential vote two weeks ago.

Early voting began Thursday, but most people in the island nation voted on Saturday.

Both Herminie and Ramkalawan ran spirited campaigns trying to address key issues for voters, including environmental damage and a crisis of drug addiction in a country long seen as a tourist haven.

The country 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 grew in recent months.

A week before the first round of voting, activists sued the government, challenging a recent decision to issue a long-term lease for a 400,000-square-meter (100-acre) area on Assomption, one of the country’s 115 islands, to a Qatari company to develop a luxury hotel.

The lease, which includes reconstruction of an airstrip to facilitate access for international flights, has ignited widespread criticism that it favors foreign interests over Seychelles’ welfare and sovereignty.

Seychelles is especially vulnerable to climate change, including rising sea levels, according to the World Bank and the U.N. Sustainable Development Group.

It also faces an addiction crisis fueled by heroin. A 2017 U.N. report described the country as a major drug transit route, and the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index said that the island nation has one of the world’s highest rates of heroin addiction.

___ This story has been corrected to show that Assomption is not Seychelles’ largest island. Mahé is.

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Emilie Chetty, The Associated Press