History of Seychelles

The islands were known by traders from the Persian Gulf centuries ago, but the first recorded landing on the uninhabited Seychelles was made in 1609 by an expedition of the British East India Company. The archipelago was explored by the Frenchman Lazare Picault in 1742 and 1744 and was formally annexed to France in 1756. The archipelago was named Séchelles, later changed by the British to Seychelles. War between France and Britain led to the surrender of the archipelago to the British in 1810, and it was formally ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. The abolition of slavery in the 1830s deprived the islands’ European colonists of their labour force and compelled them to switch from raising cotton and grains to cultivating less-labour-intensive crops such as coconut, vanilla, and cinnamon. In 1903 Seychelles—until that time administered as a dependency of Mauritius—became a separate British crown colony. A Legislative Council with elected members was introduced in 1948.

In 1963 the United States leased an area on the main island, Mahé, and built an air force satellite tracking station there; this brought regular air travel to Seychelles for the first time, in the form of a weekly seaplane shuttle that operated from Mombasa, Kenya.

In 1970 Seychelles obtained a new constitution, universal adult suffrage, and a governing council with an elected majority. Self-government was granted in 1975 and independence in 1976, within the Commonwealth of Nations. In 1975 a coalition government was formed with James R. Mancham as president and France-Albert René as prime minister. In 1977, while Mancham was abroad, René became president in a coup d’état led by the Seychelles People’s United Party (later restyled the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front [SPPF], from 2009 the People’s Party [Parti Lepep], from 2018 United Seychelles).

In 1979 a new constitution transformed Seychelles into a one-party socialist state, with René’s SPPF designated the only legal party. This change was not popular with many Seychellois, and during the 1980s there were several coup attempts. Faced with mounting pressure from the country’s primary sources of foreign aid, René’s administration began moving toward more democratic rule in the early 1990s, with the return of multiparty politics and the promulgation of a new constitution. The country also gradually abandoned its socialist economy and began to follow market-based economic strategies by privatizing most parastatal companies, encouraging foreign investment, and focusing efforts on marketing Seychelles as an offshore business and financial hub. As Seychelles entered the 21st century, the SPPF continued to dominate the political scene. After the return of multiparty elections, René was reelected three times before eventually resigning in April 2004 to allow Vice Pres. James Michel to succeed him as president.

In late 2004 some of the islands were hit by a tsunami, which severely damaged the environment and the country’s economy. The economy was an important topic in the campaigning leading up to the presidential election of 2006, in which Michel emerged with a narrow victory to win his first elected term. He was reelected in 2011. One of Michel’s ongoing concerns was piracy in the Indian Ocean, which had surged since 2009 and threatened the country’s fishing and tourism industries. To that end, the Seychellois government worked with several other countries and international organizations to curb the illegal activity.

In October 2015 Michel called for an early presidential election, rather than wait until it was due in 2016. Michel was standing for his third term, again representing the People’s Party. The election was held December 3–5, 2015. For the first time since the return of multiparty politics in 1993, the People’s Party’s candidate did not win outright in the first round of voting. Michel garnered 47.76 percent of the vote; his nearest challenger was Wavel Ramkalawan of the Seychelles National Party (SNP), who took 33.93 percent. Ramkalawan was an Anglican priest who was the leader of the SNP and had run for president in previous elections. The runoff election was held December 16–18. On December 19 Michel was declared the winner by a very narrow margin, taking 50.15 percent of the vote, with only 193 votes between him and Ramkalawan. Michel was quickly sworn in the next day for his third term. Ramkalawan voiced allegations of voting irregularities and filed two petitions with the Constitutional Court with the goal of having the election results nullified: one claiming that neither candidate had received an absolute majority of the votes cast and another alleging that voting irregularities and electoral noncompliance had occurred. In May 2016 the court dismissed both petitions and upheld Michel’s victory but did note that there had been instances of voting irregularities and noncompliance with electoral laws.

In April 2016 the constitution was amended to change the number of consecutive terms that a president could serve. The number of terms was reduced from three to two.

Legislative elections were held September 8–10, 2016. For the first time since independence, the People’s Party did not take a majority of the legislative seats. Instead, Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS), an amalgamation of Ramkalawan’s SNP and other opposition parties, took control of the National Assembly, winning 15 of the 25 directly elected seats and receiving 4 of the 8 proportional representation seats while the People’s Party won and received the rest of the directly elected and proportional representation seats. The new legislators were sworn in on September 27, 2016. Later that day Michel announced that he would step down as president, citing the need for new leadership. He formally resigned on October 16, and vice president Danny Faure was sworn in as president to complete the rest of Michel’s term.

The gradual erosion of support that the People’s Party—now known as United Seychelles—had experienced in the last legislative and presidential polls continued in the October 2020 presidential election when, for the first time, voters did not elect its flag bearer. Incumbent President Faure was defeated by perennial opposition candidate Ramkalawan who, representing the LDS, took almost 55 percent of the vote. The LDS also increased its representation in the National Assembly, winning 20 of the 25 directly elected seats and receiving 5 of 9 proportional representation seats in the National Assembly. United Seychelles received the rest of the body’s seats, winning 6 and receiving 4 proportional representation seats. Ramkalawan was sworn in on October 26; the new legislators, on October 28, 2020.