The Seychellois vote from Thursday, October 22 to elect their president and their deputies, a ballot against a background of concern for the economy of this archipelago of 115 islands scattered in the Indian Ocean, where the Covid-19 epidemic has collapses the flow of tourists.
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A narrow defeat in the 2015 presidential election and strong the following year of its first legislative victory in the country's history, forty years after independence, the opposition hopes to gain leadership for the first time. State.
But she could not offer a united front and two candidates will face the outgoing president Danny Faure who, as vice-president of James Michel, completed the last four years the mandate of this one after his resignation in 2016.
Most of the islands of fine sand that have made the reputation of the archipelago are uninhabited and most of the some 98,000 Seychellois concentrate on those of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, whose voters will vote Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ( 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Paris).
Thursday and Friday, a few hundred voters from a dozen islands - employees of hotels or the management company of protected areas, some transported by boat from nearby islets - will vote in turn in polling stations often ephemeral, transported by air.
The main rival of Danny Faure, 58, will be the Anglican priest Wavel Ramkalawan, whose sixth presidential candidacy at 59 and who was defeated by only 193 votes by James Michel in 2015, in a second round unprecedented in the country's history.
He will represent Linyon Democratik Seselwa (LDS, Seychellois Democratic Union), majority in the Assembly since the last legislative (19 seats out of 34) which led to an "American-style cohabitation", the executive having to deal with a hostile chamber .
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Third candidate, Alain St Ange, ex-Minister of Tourism (2012-2016) - the country's main economic sector -, presents himself in the colors of his One Seychelles party, the last born on the political scene, a year ago.
Brilliant speaker, he could pay the price for his back and forth between the opposition and the government.
Most of the campaign took place on social networks where the opposition and its supporters are most active, and on television, where for the first time two very well-attended debates between the candidates.
Danny Faure, candidate of United Seychelles, new name of the ex-single party which has given the country all its heads of state since 1977, could pay the desire for change of the population, on which the opposition is banking.
A major concern of the voters, the economic situation of the country seriously damaged by the collapse in the number of tourists caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Seychelles has only registered 148 cases so far, but the virus has entered the campaign directly as the health ministry has banned election rallies, support barometers and show of force tools in a country without an institute survey.
Since the start of the pandemic, Seychelles' economy, ultra-dependent on tourism, has slowed down and around 700 Seychellois have lost their jobs, mostly in the tourism sector.
The country also experiences strong inequalities: although per capita income is among the highest in Africa, the official statistics body estimates that 40% of Seychellois live below the poverty line, due to the high cost of living. .
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Another major campaign theme is corruption, a taboo subject in this small country where everyone knows each other and where political and business circles are closely linked.
Seychelles ranks first among the most virtuous countries in Africa and among the thirty most virtuous in the world, just behind the United States and France, in the ranking of the NGO Transparency International.
But it is also a tax haven housing many offshore companies.
An Anti-Corruption Commission, created in 2016, is investigating in particular the alleged disappearance of a donation of $ 50 million from the Emirates, but its slowness - so far no case has been sent to justice - and its lack of resources are criticized.
By proposing the legalization of cannabis, which President Faure opposes, One Seychelles has also put drugs at the heart of the campaign.
The country holds the world record for heroin addicts per capita and has set up a system of distribution of methadone coupled with care, behind which is now the entire political class.
