SEYCHELLES: An unprecedented change at the top

Something unprecedented happened in Seychelles: for the first time, the opposition won a presidential election and there was a peaceful transition of power. The United Seychelles party had, under various names, dominated Seychellois politics since a coup in 1977, one year after the country achieved independence from the UK, and stayed in power when multi-party elections returned in 1993. But the 2020 election result saw Wavel Ramkalawan defeat the incumbent, Danny Faure, by roughly 55 per cent to 44 per cent of the vote. It marked the culmination of a dogged campaign by Ramkalawan, who had stood in every presidential election since 1998 and came second five times.