President Michel’s 12th year in the highest office |15 April 2016

Yesterday marked the 12th anniversary of Seychelles President James A. Michel’s rise to power and he marked the occasion by spending the afternoon with the youths of Seychelles as they celebrated their academic achievements.

President Michel attended the Seychelles Institute of Technology (SIT) graduation ceremony at the International Conference Centre of Seychelles yesterday and presented Michelle Pool with the President’s Cup.

Mr Michel first became President on April 14, 2004 after taking over the reign from his predecessor France Albert Rene. Mr Rene stepped down to hand control of Seychelles over to Mr Michel.

Mr Michel served out the remainder of Mr Rene’s term and won the Presidential elections held on July 28-30, 2006. He took 53.7% of the vote and was sworn in for his new term on August 1, 2006.

In May 2011, Mr Michel won re-election to serve the highest office, receiving 55.4% of the votes. He was sworn in for his second term of office on May 24, 2011.

Mr Michel won the second round of the presidential election on December 18, 2015 to be re-elected for a third and final five-year presidential term.

The Parti Lepep leader polled a total 31,512 or 50.15% of the popular vote to beat Wavel Ramkalawan of the Seychelles National Party (SNP) who got 31,319 or 49.85%.  The margin of victory was 193 votes.

This was the first time in the history of Seychelles that a president was elected into office after a run-off.

After none of the six candidates got the required 50 percent plus one votes that was needed for an outright majority during the first round of voting from December 3-5, a second round was needed to decide between the two highest vote getters

Mr Michel got 47.76% in the first round and Mr Ramkalawan 35.33%.