Seychelles’ main opposition leader Patrick Herminie has won presidential elections, defeating incumbent Wavel Ramkalawan in a runoff vote, according to official results released by the electoral commission.
Herminie won 52.7 per cent of the vote, while Ramkalawan took 47.3 per cent, official results announced early on Sunday showed.
Ramkalawan, who attended the electoral commission’s announcement of the results, congratulated Herminie, who became Seychelles’s sixth president.
After losing his bid for a second term, Ramkalawan congratulated Herminie on his victory, saying he leaves “a legacy that makes many presidents blush”.
Images published by the Seychelles Nation newspaper showed the two leaders shaking hands after the announcement.
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 by 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.
Outside the electoral commission headquarters, thousands of Herminie’s supporters erupted in cheers and waved the country’s flag and party banners as they greeted him following his proclamation as the winner, according to videos on social media.
The race between the two main contenders was decided in a run-off after there was no outright winner in the presidential vote two weeks ago. Early voting began on Thursday, but most people in the island nation voted on Saturday.
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.
Ramkalawan campaigned for re-election on his management of Seychelles’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and expansion of social protections.
But voters opted for Herminie, who accused Ramkalawan of presiding over a proliferation of corruption, and promised to cancel a hotel project permitted by his government that environmentalists say threatens a UNESCO-listed coral atoll.