Seychelles’s opposition leader, Patrick Herminie, has won the country’s presidential race, defeating incumbent leader Wavel Ramkalawan in a run-off vote, according to the electoral commission.
Herminie won 52.7 percent of the vote, while Ramkalawan took 47.3 percent, official results announced early on Sunday showed.
In his victory speech, Herminie pledged to lower the cost of living, revive public services and unite the island nation.
“The people have spoken,” the 62-year-old said at the headquarters of the electoral commission.
“I am deeply humbled for the trust that the people have placed in me. I will be the president of all Seychellois, and I will end divisions by ceasing preferences, and giving everyone the opportunity to thrive,” he said.
Herminie’s victory gives his United Seychelles party full control of the government after it also reclaimed a majority in parliament during the first round of the general election last month.
The win is also a complete turnaround for Herminie, who in 2023 was arrested on charges of witchcraft that were later dropped. He previously served as speaker of the country’s parliament from 2007 to 2016.
Ramkalawan, who attended the electoral commission’s announcement of the results, congratulated Herminie, who becomes Seychelles’s sixth president.
Images published by the Seychelles Nation newspaper showed the two leaders shaking hands after the announcement.
Credit: aljazeera.com
