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.<\/p>\n
Herminie gained 52.7% of the vote, compared with Ramkalawan’s 47.3%.<\/p>\n
In his victory speech, Herminie promised to lower the cost of living, revive public services, and unite the island nation, saying the result marked “a new chapter for all Seychellois”.<\/p>\n
After losing his bid for a second term, Ramkalawan congratulated Herminie on his victory, saying he leaves “a legacy that makes many presidents blush”. <\/p>\n
The election went to a run-off after neither candidate won an outright majority in the first round two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
A former parliamentary speaker, Herminie was charged with witchcraft in 2023 in what he said was a politically motivated attempt to thwart his presidential ambitions. <\/p>\n
The charges were dropped in 2024, paving the way for him to run for office. <\/p>\n
“I will be the president of all Seychellois, and I will end divisions by ceasing preferences and giving everyone the opportunity to thrive,” Herminie said in his victory speech. <\/p>\n
Ramkalawan is the latest incumbent to lose elections in Africa, with Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera voted out of power last month amid growing discontent with the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n
Herminie’s party, United Seychelles (US), won parliamentary elections with a solid majority last month, regaining control after previously losing it to Rakalawan’s Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seychelles’ main opposition leader Patrick Herminie has won presidential elections, defeating incumbent Wavel Ramkalawan in a runoff vote,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-207693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}