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Rene Wins Seychelles' President Election
President France Albert Rene won Seychelles' presidential elections after three days of voting which ended late Sunday, according to a report reaching Nairobi Monday from Victoria, Seychelles.
Rene, 65, who has ruled the Indian Ocean archipelago since seizing power in 1977, won 54.19 percent of the vote, while his closest challenger, Wavel Ramkalawan, leader of the opposition Seychelles National Party, gained 44.95 percent, said Hendrick Gappy, the Seychelles' electoral commissioner.
A third candidate, Philip Boulle, a lawyer who ran as an independent, received the remaining votes.
"The vote shows that the Seychelles people are confident in me, my party and my program, and have believed what I have said," Rene said on state television early Monday, hours after the election.
Rene was re-elected in 1998 with 66.6 percent of the vote; Ramkalawan came in second with 19.5 percent.
During three days of voting, ballot boxes were ferried by boat and plane to 16 of archipelago's estimated 115 islands. Voting was peaceful and some 50,000 of the 60,000 registered voters cast ballots.
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