Seychelles: Incumbent president, James Michel re-elected in narrow victory

Incumbent James Michel has won the run-off vote in Seychelles’ presidential election, after securing 50.2 percent of votes cast.

Voting started on Wednesday and ran for 3 days because of huge distances between some of the 115 islands that are home to 93,000 people. Some 62,831 people voted in the run-off.

Michel secured 193 more votes than his rival Wavel Ramkalawan.

“I therefore declare president James Michel as the winner of this election,” Hendrick Gappy, chairman of the Seychelles Electoral Commission, said early on Saturday after the counting of the ballots ended.

The run-off vote was held after none of 6 candidates won the necessary 50 percent of votes needed to be declared a winner in the first round held on December 3-5.

Michel, 71, campaigned for a third term by touting the Indian Ocean archipelago’s economic expansion under his watch. “We missed victory by about 2 percent last time, which we have now obtained, so today we will celebrate,” he said at the electoral commission headquarters right after the result announcement.

Opposition candidate, Ramkalawan of the Seychelles National Party has demanded a recount.

“There have been many irregularities like the buying of votes by the ruling Parti Lepep and on the basis of the narrow margin of a mere 193 votes by which Michel has won, I demand a recount and reject the results,” Ramkalawan, also present at the electoral commission, said.

Michel can only serve 3 elected terms.

Seychelles’ economy, which depends heavily on tourism, is forecast to expand by more than 4 percent in 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The country has also been working to build up a financial services sector.

Source: Reuters