Most of Seychelles’ 74,600 voters began voting on Saturday to elect their president and deputies, on the last of three days of a poll conducted across 115 islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, worried about the collapse of arrivals from tourists caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thursday and Friday, the agents of the Electoral Commission had crisscrossed by plane and boat the “remote islands” to install ephemeral polling stations for their few hundred residents – mainly employees of hotels and the public space management company. protected.
On Saturday, it is the turn of the voters of the three main islands – Mahé, Praslin, La Digue – where more than 99% of the 98,000 inhabitants of this archipelago are concentrated, most of the land area of which is uninhabited, to go to the polls of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time.
North of Mahé, the Bel Ombre polling station, located in a secondary school located right next to a magnificent white sand beach, opened shortly after 7:00 a.m. before briefly closing its doors, the time to disinfect the equipment, that voters touched.
“We had some problems in the procedures, but now it’s okay, we will catch up,” said Jerry Souris, in charge of this polling station.
Some of the 3,261 voters of Bel Ombre arrived as early as 4:30 am and in the morning a long queue spilled out into the street, strewn with umbrellas under which voters protected themselves from the sun.
“I have always voted for the same party and I do not believe that one day I will change my choice,” explains Yvonne Balthilde, 63, who arrived shortly after sunrise.
Having gained a majority in Parliament in 2016, for the first time in the country’s history in 40 years of independence, the opposition hopes to finally conquer the presidency, five years after having narrowly failed in the previous election.
It relies in particular on the desire for change of the population to beat the outgoing Danny Faure, 58, candidate for United Seychelles, the new name of the former single party which has given the country all its heads of state since 1977.
The outgoing president was the first to vote at the Beau Vallon office, neighboring Bel Ombre.
“I decided to come very early to go and encourage the Seychellois to do their duty, and this afternoon, I will go to Praslin and La Digue,” said Danny Faure.
“I think I will win these elections, and I will respect the choice and the will of the Seychellois people. “
Idle tourism
The opposition could be handicapped by its disunity: two candidates face Mr. Faure, propelled to the head of state by the resignation in 2016 of James Michel, of which he was the vice-president, to complete his mandate.
Main opponent of Mr. Faure, the Anglican priest Wavel Ramkalawan is running at 59 for the sixth time in the presidential election, after being defeated by 193 votes only in 2015 by James Michel, whom he had forced to a second round, a first in the country’s history.
He will represent Linyon Democratik Seselwa (LDS, Seychellois Democratic Union), which has held 19 of the 34 seats in Parliament since the last legislative elections which led to “American cohabitation” and forced the executive to come to terms with a hostile chamber.
Former Minister of Tourism – engine of the Seychelles economy with the tuna industry – Alain St Ange presents himself in the colors of a new party, One Seychelles, born barely a year ago.
If the archipelago recorded only 149 contaminations, the Covid-19 upset the electoral campaign by preventing any gathering and placing at the heart of the concerns of Seychellois the impact of the pandemic on the economy.
The number of visitors has collapsed since March in the archipelago renowned for its paradisiacal landscapes of sandy beaches and turquoise waters.
The sector is now sluggish and around 700 Seychellois have lost their jobs due to the epidemic.
The country with the highest per capita income in Africa in 2019, Seychelles nevertheless experiences strong inequalities. The National Bureau of Statistics estimates that 40% of Seychellois live below the poverty line, due to the high cost of living.