Seychelles
Name
| Official name | Republic of Seychelles — Repiblik Sesel (Seychellois Creole), République des Seychelles (French); Seychelles, Sesel, the short form, always with the s |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Crown Colony of Seychelles (31 August 1903 – 29 June 1976), a dependency of Mauritius from the British capture of 1794 and the Treaty of Paris of 1814 to 1903; the Isles de Séchelles of the French claim of 1756 and the settlement of 1770; the "Seven Sisters" of the early charts; the uninhabited islands the Arab sailors, Vasco da Gama's fleet of 1503 and the English East India Company's Ascension of 1609 sighted and passed |
| Demonym | Seychellois (Seselwa in Creole); a Seychelloise for a woman in the French usage |
| Meaning of the name | For Jean Moreau de Séchelles, controller-general of finances of Louis XV, in whose honor the French expedition of Captain Nicolas Morphey laid the Stone of Possession on Mahé on 1 November 1756 and named the islands "Isles de Séchelles"; the spelling anglicized by the British after 1814; Mahé for Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, the governor of Mauritius who sent Lazare Picault in 1742; Praslin for the Duc de Praslin, minister of the navy, in 1768; La Digue for one of Marion Dufresne's ships of 1768; Victoria for the queen, 1841; Aldabra from the Arabic al-khadra, "the green," of the sailors |
| Motto | "Finis Coronat Opus" — "The end crowns the work," the Latin of the colonial badge chosen by Governor Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott, approved in 1901, flown on the Union Jack from 1903 and kept on the coat of arms of 1976 |
Quick facts
| Capital | Victoria — on the northeast coast of Mahé, founded 1778 as L'Établissement du Roi, renamed 1841; about 27,000 in the town, the smallest capital of Africa, with the Greater Victoria districts of the half of the nation around it |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Victoria and its districts of Mont Fleuri, Plaisance, Bel Air, Saint Louis, English River, Mont Buxton, Les Mamelles and Roche Caiman; Anse Royale, Beau Vallon and Cascade of Mahé, Cascade the most populous district of the census of 2022 at about 6,200; Baie Sainte Anne and Grand'Anse of Praslin; La Passe of La Digue; Ile Perseverance, the reclaimed island of the housing estates of the 2010s |
| Official language | Seychellois Creole (Seselwa), English and French, the three of the Constitution of 1993 — Creole the mother tongue of 92% of the people, the French-based Creole of the plantations written in its own orthography since 1981 and taught in the schools, the Lenstiti Kreol of Anse aux Pins its academy; English the language of the government, the courts, the Assembly and the schools after the first years; French of the church, the old families and the Francophonie; the Tamil, Hindi, Chinese and Malagasy of the workers and the traders |
| Currency | Seychellois rupee — SCR, SR; 100 cents; the Central Bank of Seychelles; floating since 3 November 2008, about 14 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Seychelles Time, UTC+4; no summer time |
| Calling code | +248 |
| Internet domain | .sc |
| ISO 3166 codes | SC · SYC · 690 |
| Vehicle registration code | SY |
| Driving side | Left |
| Electricity | 240 V, 50 Hz; plug type G |
| Independence | 29 June 1976, from the United Kingdom — the crown colony of 1903 made a republic within the Commonwealth under President James Mancham of the Democratic Party in coalition with France-Albert René's Seychelles People's United Party; the first settlement of 27 August 1770 on Sainte Anne; the British possession of 23 April 1811 confirmed at Paris on 30 May 1814 |
| National days | 29 June, National Day, the Independence Day of 1976 — the parade of Victoria; 18 June, Constitution Day, the constitution and the flag of 1993 and 1996; 1 and 2 January; Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday; 1 May; Corpus Christi; 15 August, the Assumption; 1 November, All Saints; 8 December, the Immaculate Conception; 25 December; the Festival Kreol of the last week of October since 1985; the 5 June of the coup of 1977, the Liberation Day of the one-party years |
| Constitution | 18 June 1993 — the third constitution, approved by the referendum of 15 to 18 June 1993 with 73.9% after the draft of 1992 failed, in force from 21 June 1993: a presidential republic of an executive president elected for five years, the vice president on his ticket, the cabinet of ministers he appoints, the National Assembly of 26 constituency seats by first past the post and up to ten proportional seats, one for each 10% of the national vote, the Constitutional Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, the Bill of Rights of the multiparty return after the one-party constitution of 1979; amended in 2016 to cut the presidential terms from three to two; the constitution of independence of 1976 and the one-party constitution of 26 March 1979 before it |
| Population | 100,447 at the census of April 2022, the first count past 100,000 — 84% citizens, 16% foreign residents; about 121,000 by the National Bureau of Statistics' estimate for 2024, growing about 1% a year on the arrivals of the workers |
| Area | About 459 km² (177 sq mi) of land by the Statistical Office, 455 to 457 by the Factbook and the encyclopedias — 115 islands, the granite of Mahé 157 km², Praslin 38, Silhouette 20, La Digue 10, the coral of Aldabra 155; the exclusive economic zone of 1.34 million km² (517,000 sq mi), some 2,900 times the land; the joint management area of 396,000 km² of the Mascarene Plateau shared with Mauritius since 2011–12 |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Five oblique bands of blue, yellow, red, white and green radiating from the bottom of the hoist to the fly and the top, in the proportion 1:2 — the blue for the sky and the sea that surround the islands, the yellow for the sun that gives light and life, the red for the people and their determination to work for the future in unity and love, the white for social justice and harmony, the green for the land and the natural environment; the bands that fan out from the corner "a dynamic young country moving into a new future" in the government's words; the design of Philip Uzice adopted with the multiparty settlement in 1996 — on 8 January by the flag page's date, on the Constitution Day of 18 June by the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation's — the third flag since independence after the blue-and-red triangles of Mancham's coalition of 1976 and the red, white and green wavy flag of René's party of 1977 to 1996; the colors Pantone 294 blue, 122 yellow, 1795 red and 356 green.Flag of Seychelles |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | A shield of an Aldabra giant tortoise beneath a coco de mer palm on a green island, the blue sea behind with a schooner under sail and the island profiles; the crest of a silver helmet with a white-tailed tropicbird in flight above blue and white waves; two Indo-Pacific sailfish as the supporters; the motto "Finis Coronat Opus" on the scroll — granted by the royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II of 27 May 1976 for the independence, the tortoise, the palm and the tropicbird carried over from the colonial badge of 1961 and the motto from 1901 |
| National anthem | "Koste Seselwa" ("Join together all Seychellois") — the words and music of David François Marc André and George Charles Robert Payet, with a first contribution of Antoine Azemia and the arrangement of Anatoli Savatinov, chosen in a national competition and adopted on 18 June 1996 with the flag, in Creole; "En Avant" the anthem of independence of 1976 and "Fyer Seselwa" the anthem of the one-party republic of 1978 to 1996 |
| National motto | "Finis Coronat Opus" — "The end crowns the work" |
| National colors | Blue, yellow, red, white and green — the flag's five |
| National animal | The Aldabra giant tortoise, Aldabrachelys gigantea, of the arms and the 100,000 of Aldabra, the one giant tortoise of the Indian Ocean the hunters spared, Esmeralda of Bird Island the famous one; the Seychelles black parrot of Praslin, Coracopsis barklyi, the national bird by common designation, the 500 to 900 birds of the Vallée de Mai; the white-tailed tropicbird of the crest; the Indo-Pacific sailfish of the supporters; the Seychelles magpie-robin, the warbler of Cousin and the paradise flycatcher of La Digue of the rescues; none designated by law; widely cited |
| National flower | The tropicbird orchid, Angraecum eburneum, the white orchid of the granite cliffs whose shape recalls the tropicbird's tail, the national flower by common designation; the coco de mer, Lodoicea maldivica, the national tree, the palm of the Vallée de Mai and Curieuse whose double nut of up to 25 kg is the largest seed of any plant, the "sea coconut" of the Maldives' sailors and the aphrodisiac of the sultans, the emblem of the passport stamp; the jellyfish tree of Mahé; the pitcher plant of the mountains; the bwa-d-fer; none designated by law; widely cited |
| National dish | The Creole cuisine of the fish curry and the rice — the red snapper and the tuna grilled and curried, the octopus curry of the coconut milk, the ladob of the plantains and the breadfruit in coconut cream, the shark chutney, the bat curry of the fruit bat, the kat-kat banana, the satini of the papaya and the golden apple, the breadfruit chips, the palm-heart "millionaire's salad," the Seybrew beer and the Takamaka rum, the calou of the palm and the baka of the sugarcane; none designated by law; widely cited |
| National sport | Football of the Seychelles Football Federation and the "Pirates," the Stade Linité of Roche Caiman, the Indian Ocean Island Games the country hosted in 1993 and 2011, the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup of 1 to 11 May 2025 at Paradise Arena, the first FIFA tournament held in Africa's islands; the athletics, the sailing and the swimming of the Olympians since 1980 without a medal; the boxing, the volleyball and the basketball of the districts; none designated by law; widely cited |
| The moutya | The moutya, the drum-and-song dance of the enslaved of the plantations on the beaches at night, banned by the colony and the church and kept by the people, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 as the country's first intangible heritage; the sega of the Mauritian kind; the kanmtole of the fiddle and the banjo of the French quadrille; the Festival Kreol of October; the Lenstiti Kreol |
| Symbol status | The flag and the anthem by the settlement of 1996; the arms by the royal warrant of 1976; the motto of 1901; National Day and Constitution Day by the public holidays; the moutya by UNESCO; the tortoise, the black parrot, the orchid, the coco de mer, the dish and the sport widely cited, none designated |
Geography
| Location | The western Indian Ocean, 4 to 10 degrees south of the equator — Mahé about 1,600 km east of Mombasa in Kenya and 920 km northeast of Madagascar, 1,800 km from Mauritius to the southeast and 2,800 km from Mumbai; the granitic inner islands on the Seychelles Bank of the Mascarene Plateau within 90 km of Mahé, the coral outer islands scattered 1,200 km to the southwest toward Africa; outside the cyclone belt but for the far south; the middle of the sea lanes of the Gulf, India and East Africa that the pirates of Somalia crossed from 2009 |
|---|---|
| Land borders | None — the islands; the maritime boundaries with Mauritius, Madagascar, the Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya and the French Glorioso and Tromelin claims, the joint management area with Mauritius of 2011 over the Mascarene Plateau beyond the 200-mile lines, the first of its kind |
| Coastline | 491 km (305 mi) — the beaches of Beau Vallon, Anse Intendance, Anse Royale and Anse Takamaka of Mahé, Anse Lazio and Anse Georgette of Praslin, Anse Source d'Argent and Grand Anse of La Digue of the boulders and the white sand; the reefs of the Sainte Anne park; the mangroves of Port Launay; the cliffs of Silhouette; the 1,200 km of coral rims of the outer islands; the port of Victoria of the tuna and the cruise ships; the reclamation of Eden Island, Ile Perseverance and the Providence zone of the 1990s and 2010s that added land to Mahé |
| Highest point | Morne Seychellois, 905 m (2,969 ft), on Mahé, in the national park of the cloud forest; Mont Dauban on Silhouette 740 m; Fond Azore on Praslin 367 m; Belle Vue (Eagle's Nest) on La Digue 333 m; the coral islands under 10 m |
| Lowest point | The Indian Ocean, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | Not published; the granite peaks of the inner islands and the atolls a few meters high |
| Rivers | No rivers of length — the streams of the Mahé mountains of the Rivière Cascade, the Rivière Mare aux Cochons and the falls of Port Glaud and Sauzier, the Rochon dam of 1969 and the La Gogue dam of 1979 raised in the 2020s of Victoria's water, the streams of Praslin's Vallée de Mai; the desalination plants of the dry seasons and the droughts of 1999 and 2016; the tidal channels of Aldabra where the lagoon empties and fills at 3 m a second |
| Lakes | None — the lagoons of the atolls: Aldabra's of 196 km², Cosmoledo, Astove, Farquhar and the Amirantes; the Aldabra tidal range of 2.7 m; the marsh of the Grand Police and the Anse Boileau of Mahé |
| Terrain | Two countries in one — the granitic inner islands, the only mid-ocean islands of granite in the world, the fragment of the Gondwana continent left on the Mascarene Plateau when India drifted north, the peaks of Mahé, Silhouette and Praslin of the boulders, the glacis slabs and the forests of the endemics; and the coralline outer islands, the sand cays, the raised atolls and the reef islands of the Amirantes of 1502, the Alphonse, the Southern Coral, the Farquhar and the Aldabra groups, the outer islands of the Islands Development Company and the resorts of the few; the Seychelles Bank of 40,000 km² at 50 m of depth around the inner islands; Aldabra, 34 km by 13, the raised limestone rim 8 m high around the lagoon; 42% of the land in the parks and the reserves |
| Climate | Tropical maritime — 24 to 32°C all year, 26°C the mean of the sea, the humidity of 80% and the rain of 2,880 mm a year at Victoria and 3,550 on the mountain slopes, the northwest monsoon of November to March of the rains and the calms and the southeast trade winds of May to September of the dry, the cooler and the rougher seas, the seaweed on the southeast beaches; April and October the still months of the divers; the outer islands drier, Aldabra at 1,000 mm; outside the cyclone belt but for the Farquhar and Aldabra groups of the far south; the coral bleaching of the 1998 and 2016 El Niños that killed up to 90% of the shallow reefs |
| Natural hazards | The tsunami of 26 December 2004 that swept the east coast of Mahé and Praslin, killed two and wrecked the bridges and the roads; Cyclone Fantala of April 2016 on Farquhar, the strongest storm recorded in the southwest Indian Ocean, and the flooding of Tropical Storm Felleng of January 2013; the landslides and the floods of the Mahé rains, the explosion of 7 December 2023 at the Providence industrial zone the same night as the floods of La Digue and Mahé that brought a state of emergency; the coral bleaching of the El Niño years; the sea-level rise of the low islands; the droughts of the northwest monsoon's failures; the piracy of 2009 to 2012; the fires of the dry season on Mahé |
| Natural resources | The fish of the tuna grounds — the skipjack and the yellowfin of the purse seiners of Spain and France that land at Victoria, the largest tuna transshipment port of the Indian Ocean; the coconuts and the copra of the old estates, the cinnamon of Mahé's hills, the vanilla and the tea of the Morne Blanc; the granite; the guano of the outer islands of the 1800s; the sea itself — the exclusive economic zone of 1.34 million km², the marine protected areas of 410,000 km² since 2020 and the "blue economy" of the bonds and the swaps; the oil and gas the licenses of PetroSeychelles have searched the plateau for since the 1970s without a field; the coco de mer nuts of the licensed sale |
| Land use | Forest and woodland about 88% by the FAO count of the mountains and the coconut groves; arable land about 2%, the cinnamon, the tea, the vanilla and the vegetables of Anse Boileau; the built land of the coast of Mahé; about 42% of the land and 260 km² of the surrounding sea in the national parks and the reserves; 30% of the exclusive economic zone under marine protection since March 2020 |
| National parks | Morne Seychellois National Park (1979), 3,045 ha, a fifth of Mahé, of the peak, the cloud forest, the tea and the Copolia and Morne Blanc trails; Praslin National Park (1979) of the Vallée de Mai and the black parrot; Silhouette National Park (2010), 93% of the island; Sainte Anne Marine National Park (1973), the first marine park of the Indian Ocean, off Victoria; Curieuse Marine National Park (1979) of the tortoises and the mangroves; Baie Ternay and Port Launay marine parks of Mahé; Ile Cocos of La Digue; the Aldabra Special Reserve of the Seychelles Islands Foundation since 1979; Cousin Island Special Reserve (1968) of BirdLife and the warbler; Aride Island Nature Reserve (1973) of the seabirds; the Veuve Reserve of La Digue of the paradise flycatcher; Bird Island of the sooty terns; the outer-island reserves of Alphonse, Desroches and Farquhar of the flats fishing; the Seychelles National Parks Authority |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 2 — Aldabra Atoll (19 November 1982), the raised coral atoll of the 100,000 giant tortoises, the world's largest herd, the white-throated rail, the last flightless bird of the Indian Ocean, the frigatebirds and the lagoon; the Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve (1983), the 19.5 hectares of the palm forest of Praslin where the coco de mer grows with the black parrot, "the Garden of Eden" of General Gordon of Khartoum's 1881 theory; the moutya on the intangible list (2021); Aldabra and the Seychelles Islands Foundation of the trust of 1979 |
| Administrative divisions | 26 districts — 22 on Mahé, 14 of the island and 8 of Greater Victoria: Anse aux Pins, Anse Boileau, Anse Etoile, Au Cap, Anse Royale, Baie Lazare, Beau Vallon, Bel Air, Bel Ombre, Cascade, Glacis, Grand'Anse Mahé, English River, Mont Buxton, Mont Fleuri, Plaisance, Pointe La Rue, Port Glaud, Saint Louis, Takamaka, Les Mamelles and Roche Caiman; Baie Sainte Anne and Grand'Anse Praslin of Praslin; La Digue and the Inner Islands; the Outer Islands; the 26 constituencies of the National Assembly with Ile Perseverance since 2020; the district administrators of the Ministry of Local Government; the three regions of the census — Mahé, Praslin and La Digue |
People
| Population | 100,447 (census of April 2022); about 121,000 (2024 est., National Bureau of Statistics) |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 265 per km² (690 per sq mi) on the land — about 700 on Mahé where nine in ten live, about 200 on Praslin, about 300 on La Digue, near zero on the outer islands of the few hundred workers |
| Population growth | About 1% a year — the births of 12 per thousand over the deaths of 7, the fertility below replacement, the growth of the foreign workers who are a sixth of the residents; the Seychellois count itself near flat, the young of the emigration to Britain, Australia and Canada and the return of the retirees |
| Median age | About 37 years |
| Life expectancy | About 76 years — 72 for men, 81 for women |
| Fertility rate | About 1.7 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 58% |
| Adult literacy | About 96% |
| Ethnic groups | Seychellois Creole about 97% of the nation — the people of the plantations of the French settlers of 1770, the enslaved of Madagascar and East Africa freed in 1835 and the liberated Africans the Royal Navy landed from the Arab dhows between 1861 and 1874, the Indian traders of Gujarat and the Tamils of the indenture, the Chinese shopkeepers of the 1880s and the British of the colony, mixed over two centuries into one Creole people the census does not divide by race; the Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Malagasy, Filipino and Kenyan workers of the hotels, the building sites and the fishing boats, about 16% of the residents; the "grand blancs" of the old estates and the "Indo-Seychellois" of the shops the two named minorities |
| Languages | Seychellois Creole by 92% at home, the French Creole of the "Bonzour" and the "Mersi" with its own orthography since 1981 and among the first Creoles made an official language of a state, since 1981; English by the government, the courts and the schools from the second grade and by 5% at home; French by 1% at home and the church and the old families; the Tamil and the Hindi of the traders; the Creole Institute of 1986, the Creole radio and the Creole of the Assembly's debates |
| Religion | Roman Catholic 61% by the census of 2022, the church of the French settlers of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Victoria of 1874 and of the Corpus Christi holiday, the diocese of Port Victoria; other Christian 14% — the Anglican Church of the Diocese of Seychelles of the Cathedral of Saint Paul, the Pentecostals, the Seventh-day Adventists; Hindu 5%, the temple of Victoria of 1992 of the Indian traders; Muslim 2%, the mosque of Victoria of the Indian and the Arab; other 5%; not stated 12%; the "gris-gris" of the sorcery of the plantations that the law still names and the people still fear |
| Human Development Index | 0.848 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 54th of 193, the highest of any African country |
| Culture and letters | The Creole of the Festival Kreol of every October since 1985 of the moutya, the sega and the kanmtole, the poems of Antoine Abel, the "father of Seychellois literature," of "Coco sec," the novels of Glynn Burridge, the paintings of Michael Adams of Anse aux Poules Bleues and the sculptures of Tom Bowers; the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation of 1992, the Seychelles Nation of the government and Today in Seychelles; the University of Seychelles of 2009 at Anse Royale; the National Museum of History of 2018 in the Supreme Court building of 1885; the Kenwyn House and the Domaine de Val des Prés of the plantation houses; the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke market; the Mission Lodge of Venn's Town of the freed slaves' school of 1876 where the Queen took tea in 1972 |
| Sport | Football of the Pirates and the Seychelles Premier League, the Indian Ocean Island Games hosted in 1993 and 2011 and the medals of the region's games; the Beach Soccer World Cup of May 2025 the country hosted at the Paradise Arena of Roche Caiman, the first FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup held in Africa; the Olympians of 1980 to 2024 without a medal — the swimmers, the sailors, the boxers and the runners; the Seychelles Regatta and the sailing of Beau Vallon; the fishing tournaments of the sailfish and the marlin; the Eco-Friendly Marathon of February; the fly fishing of Alphonse and Farquhar of the bonefish and the giant trevally that the anglers of the world pay for |
| Diaspora | Some tens of thousands of Seychellois and their descendants abroad — Britain of the London and the Kent of the 1970s who left after the coup, Australia of Perth, Canada, Mauritius of the cousins, Kenya and South Africa; the "exiles" of 1977 who came back after 1993 and the ones who did not; the remittances small beside the tourism; the Seychellois of the boats and the hotels of the world |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary presidential republic under the Constitution of 1993 — the president as head of state and of government, directly elected for five years, two terms since 2016, with the vice president on the ticket and a cabinet of up to 14 ministers, no prime minister; the National Assembly of 26 constituency members and up to ten proportional; the Constitutional Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of the chief justice; the multiparty democracy restored in 1991 and 1993 after the one-party state of 1979 to 1991 of René's Seychelles People's Progressive Front, the first change of power at the ballot box in 2020 and the second in 2025; "free" by Freedom House, the first liberal democracy of Africa by the V-Dem index of 2024, the least corrupt of Africa by Transparency International's index |
|---|---|
| President | Dr. Patrick Herminie (United Seychelles — US), since 26 October 2025 — the sixth president of the republic; born 22 September 1963 at Baie Sainte Anne on Praslin, the physician of the Victoria Hospital and the public health service, a member of the Assembly before the chair, the Speaker of the National Assembly from 29 May 2007 to 27 September 2016 under Michel, the leader of United Seychelles since 31 January 2021 after the defeat of 2020, the candidate of the party of René, Michel and Faure in 2025; 48.83% in the first round of 27 September 2025 against Ramkalawan's 46.44% and 52.73% in the runoff of 9 to 11 October on a turnout of 86.73%, sworn in at Stade Linité; the inaugural priorities of "addressing inequality, strengthening public health and education systems" and the cost of living, the heroin epidemic of one of the world's highest rates of use per head by the UN's and the government's counts, the housing of Ile Perseverance; the opposition's "return of the old party" and the government's "return of competence"; the term to 2030 and one more allowed |
| Vice President | Sebastien Pillay (United Seychelles), since 26 October 2025 — the running mate of the ticket of 2025, with the portfolios of information and communication technology, digital transformation, information, lands, housing, infrastructure, poverty alleviation and risk and disaster management; Ahmed Afif of the LDS the vice president of 2020 to 2025, Vincent Meriton of 2016 to 2020 |
| The cabinet | The 13 ministers President Herminie presented in the special cabinet of 6 November 2025, "the first gender-parity government in the country's history" by the government's count of six women — Pierre Laporte of finance, economic planning, trade and investment, the former central bank governor and finance minister of the Michel years; Barry Faure of foreign affairs and the diaspora; Wallace Cosgrow of fisheries, agriculture and the blue economy; Marie-May Jeremie of environment, climate, energy and natural resources; Veronique Laporte of transport, ports and civil aviation; Marvin Fanny of health; Amanda Bernstein of tourism and culture; David Pierre of education; Idith Alexander of employment; Kalsey Belle of youth and sports; James Camille of homeland security and civil affairs; Eveline Rose of local government and the inner islands; Geralda Desaubin of industry and enterprise; the president himself over defense, legal affairs, public administration, the drug agency and mental health |
| The 2025 election | The general election of 27 September 2025 with the presidential runoff of 9 to 11 October: the presidency — Herminie 30,736 votes and 48.83% to Ramkalawan's 29,230 and 46.44% in the first round on a turnout of 84.12%, three other candidates 4.73%, then Herminie 34,389 and 52.73% to Ramkalawan's 30,823 and 47.27% in the runoff on 86.73%, the first runoff since 2015 and the second defeat of a sitting president after Faure's of 2020; the National Assembly of the same days — United Seychelles 15 constituency seats and 4 proportional, 19 of 34, up nine, Linyon Demokratik Seselwa 11 and 4, 15, down ten, the Assembly dropping to 34 from 35 as the proportional seats fell with the vote; the campaign of the cost of living, the drugs, the housing, the foreign workers and the "Ramkalawan years" of the pandemic's recovery and the record tourism, the observer missions of the region; the results the Electoral Commission declared and Ramkalawan conceded; the election of 24 October 2020, when Ramkalawan of the LDS beat Faure with 54.9% in the first change of power since 1977 |
| Parliament | The National Assembly (Asanble Nasyonal) — unicameral, at Ile du Port in Victoria since 2009: 26 members elected for five years by first past the post in the 26 constituencies and up to ten proportional members, one for each 10% of the national vote for a party, 34 in the 8th Assembly sworn in on 28 October 2025; the Speaker Azarel Ernesta of United Seychelles, elected at the first sitting on 28 October 2025, the first woman to preside, the Deputy Speaker Egbert Aglae, the Leader of Government Business Sylvanne Lemiel, the Leader of the Opposition Bernard Georges of the LDS, nine women of the 34; Roger Mancienne the Speaker of 2020 to 2025 and Herminie of 2007 to 2016; the Assembly of 1993 that replaced the People's Assembly of the one-party state |
| The next election | The presidential and National Assembly elections due in 2030, five years from October 2025 — the president limited to two terms, Herminie eligible for one more; no local elections, the districts run by administrators |
| The parties | United Seychelles (US) — the Seychelles People's United Party of René of 1964, the Seychelles People's Progressive Front of the one-party state of 1978, Parti Lepep of 2009 and United Seychelles since 2018, the party of every government from 1977 to 2020 under René, Michel and Faure and again from 2025 under Herminie; Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) — the coalition of Wavel Ramkalawan's Seychelles National Party of 1998, the Anglican priest who lost five elections to the ruling party before the coalition won the Assembly of 2016 and the presidency of 2020, the opposition since 2025 under Bernard Georges in the Assembly; the Democratic Party of Mancham of 1964, the party of independence that the coup dissolved and that returned in 1992 and faded; One Seychelles of Peter Sinon; Lalyans Seselwa; the Seychelles Party for Social Justice and Democracy; the two-party contest of the ballot of 2025 |
| Legal system | A mixture — the English common law of the colony for the criminal law, the courts and the procedure, and the French civil law of the Civil Code of Seychelles of 1976, the Napoleonic code of the French years rewritten in English and replaced by the Civil Code of 2021; the Supreme Court of the Chief Justice Rony Govinden since 2020, the Court of Appeal of 1976, the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court's judges, the Magistrates' Court, the Family Tribunal, the Employment Tribunal; the death penalty abolished by the Constitution of 1993, never carried out since independence; homosexuality decriminalized by the Assembly on 18 May 2016; the Anti-Corruption Commission of 2016 and the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission of 2019 to 2023 that heard the wrongs of the coup years and the exiles; the Misuse of Drugs Act of 2016 and the heroin epidemic of the 5,000 to 6,000 users of the Agency for Prevention of Drug Abuse's count; the piracy trials of 2009 to 2015 that convicted more than 100 Somali pirates in the Victoria courts and sent them to Somaliland's prisons |
| Local government | The 26 districts under the district administrators of the Ministry of Local Government and the Inner Islands of Eveline Rose, no elected councils; the district teams of the community centers, the clinics and the schools; the Islands Development Company of the state over the outer islands of Desroches, Alphonse, Farquhar, Coëtivy, Astove and Assumption; the Seychelles Islands Foundation over Aldabra and the Vallée de Mai; La Digue Development Board; the Praslin and La Digue of the "inner islands" ministry |
| Defense | The Seychelles Defence Forces — the Seychelles Infantry, the Coast Guard of the patrol boats of India, China and the Emirates, the Air Force of the Dorniers and the Chetak helicopters, the Special Forces Unit, the Presidential Protection Unit, about 650 in all under the president as commander in chief; the army of the coup of 1977 and of the Tanzanian troops who guarded René, the mercenary attack of Mike Hoare of 25 November 1981 the airport repelled and the mutiny of August 1982; the pirates of Somalia of 2009 to 2012 who took the Seychellois boats of the Serenity and the Galate and the Coast Guard's rescues, the American drones of Mahé of 2009 to 2013, the European Union's Atalanta and the ships of India, China and France in Port Victoria; the Indian naval base of Assumption Island agreed in 2015 and 2018 that the Assembly refused to ratify, the Chinese and the Indian aid to the Coast Guard |
| Foreign policy | The small island state of the ocean — India of the "first responder," the coast guard ships, the radar stations and the Assumption base the Assembly stopped, the Indian prime ministers' visits of 2015 and the Indian navy of the piracy years; China of the National Assembly building of 2009, the housing and the hospital, the Chinese tourists; the United Arab Emirates of Sheikh Khalifa's palace on the Barbarons hill, the hospital of Victoria, the Abu Dhabi fund and the Etihad of Air Seychelles; France of the language, the fishing fleet, the Réunion neighbor and the disputed Tromelin and Glorioso; Britain of the Commonwealth, the Chagos and the Queen's visit of 1972; Russia of the 30,000 tourists of the direct flights of 2022 to 2025; the European Union of the tuna agreement and the tax lists; the "blue economy" of the summits, the Paris climate accord and the 30% of the sea; the Indian Ocean Commission of Victoria; the visa-free welcome to every nationality, the one country of the world that asks no visa of anyone |
| United Nations | Member since 21 September 1976; the Alliance of Small Island States and the Small Island Developing States of the climate summits; the UNESCO of Aldabra and the Vallée de Mai; the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of the joint management area with Mauritius, among the first joint continental-shelf claims the UN commission approved, in 2011; the Human Rights Council's reviews; the peacekeepers of none; the first "blue bond" the World Bank guaranteed |
| Other memberships | The African Union (1976); the Commonwealth (1976); the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (1976); the Indian Ocean Commission (1984), the seat at Ebène in Mauritius; the Southern African Development Community (1997, left 2004, rejoined 2008); the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa; the Indian Ocean Rim Association; the World Trade Organization (26 April 2015, the 161st member); the International Criminal Court (2010); the Non-Aligned Movement; the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States; the African Continental Free Trade Area; the Interpol of the piracy |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$2.3 billion (2025, IMF World Economic Outlook of April 2026 — US$2.32 billion); about US$2.25 billion forecast for 2026 in dollars as the rupee moves — the smallest economy of Africa and the richest per head |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$18,500 (2025) on the count of every resident, about US$22,000 on the count of the citizens — the highest of any African country by either |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$35,000 (2025); the GDP at purchasing power about US$4.4 billion |
| GDP growth | 3.4% in 2024, 5.1% in 2025 on the record tourism, 1.5% projected for 2026 by the IMF's Article IV of May 2026 as the arrivals level off, about 3% a year after; inflation 0.3% in 2025 and 2.6% projected for 2026 on the strong rupee and the fuel; unemployment about 3% with the foreign workers filling the hotels and the sites; the public debt 53.6% of GDP in 2025, down from the 175% of the default of 2008, projected to fall to 48% by 2031; the current-account deficit of 6.5% of GDP the tourism cannot close against the imports of everything; the reserves of US$878 million, four months of imports; the Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility of the IMF of 2021 to 2026, the fifth and sixth reviews completed on 26 May 2026 with about US$41 million, the program ended; Fitch's BB− and the "high income" of the World Bank since 2015 |
| Economy by sector | Services about 80% — the tourism of a quarter of GDP directly and most of the foreign exchange, the government, the trade, the transport, the offshore and the banking; industry about 15% — the tuna cannery, the building of the hotels and the houses, the brewery and the boatyards; agriculture and fishing about 5% — the tuna licenses, the artisanal fishing, the cinnamon, the coconuts, the vanilla, the tea, the vegetables and the fruit of Mahé's smallholdings, the food imported at 90% |
| Currency | Seychellois rupee (SCR) — about 14 to the U.S. dollar and 16 to the euro; floated on 3 November 2008 from the peg of 8 and the black market's 16 of the crisis year |
| Tourism | The engine — 354,034 visitors by 23 November 2025, 12% up on the same weeks of 2024 and the record year, the Germans of 49,000 the first, the French 39,000, the Russians of the direct flights 32,000, the Italians and the Britons 20,000 each, the Emirates, the Israelis of the Tel Aviv route, the Chinese and the Indians of the new; the moratorium on the big resorts since 2015 — the Four Seasons of Petite Anse, the Constance of Ephelia and Lemuria, the Raffles of Praslin, the North Island of the royal honeymoon, the Frégate, the Denis and the Bird of the private islands, the Six Senses of Félicité, the Waldorf Astoria of Platte Island, the Alphonse and the Desroches of the outer islands, the small hotels and the guesthouses of the Seychellois that the government reserves for them; the cruise ships of Victoria of the winter; the Anse Source d'Argent of the calendar; the visa-free entry of every nation; the Tourism Seychelles of the marketing and the "Seychelles, another world" of the slogan; the water and the sewage of Praslin and the plastic the visitors strain |
| The fish | The tuna — the Indian Ocean Tuna cannery of Victoria of 1987, the second-largest of the world, 60% Thai Union and 40% the state, the 2,000 workers of the canned tuna that is the country's first export to Europe under the "Seychelles" label; the purse seiners of Spain and France of the European Union's fisheries agreement of the €5 million a year and the license fees, the Victoria port the largest tuna transshipment port of the Indian Ocean of some 300,000 tons a year; the longliners of Taiwan and Sri Lanka; the artisanal boats of the 1,000 fishers of the red snapper, the bourgeois and the jobfish of the market; the prawn farm of Coëtivy of the 1990s that closed; the sea cucumber of the Chinese; the 30% marine protection of 2020 that the tuna fleet works around; the "blue economy" ministry |
| The blue economy and the offshore | The debt-for-nature swap of 2016 — US$21.6 million of the Paris Club debt bought at a discount by The Nature Conservancy against the pledge of 30% of the sea protected, the first for the ocean; the sovereign "blue bond" of October 2018 of US$15 million, the first of the world, guaranteed by the World Bank, for the fisheries; the 410,000 km² of marine protected areas declared in March 2020 around Aldabra and the Amirantes; the offshore of the Financial Services Authority — the international business companies of the 2000s, the trusts and the foundations, the "Seychelles" of the Panama and the Pandora papers and of the European Union's gray and black lists the country worked off, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020; the Seychelles Trading Company of the imports of the state; the Seychelles Pension Fund of the towers of Victoria; the Eden Island of the villas of the foreigners of 2007 and the marina |
| Public finances | The budget of about SCR 12 billion — the primary surplus the IMF program demanded since 2008 and the overall deficit of about 1% of GDP in 2026; the public debt of 53.6% of GDP in 2025 from the 175% of 2008, when the country defaulted on its Eurobond and went to the IMF, floated the rupee, cut the state and privatized, the "Seychelles model" of the small-island rescue; the VAT of 15% since 2013, the business tax, the tourism marketing tax, the environmental levy of the visitors; the 13th-month salary of the state of 2013; the Agency for Social Protection of the pensions and the welfare of the aged; the fuel and the food of the imports the current account carries; the Sheikh Khalifa gifts of the hospital and the palace; the Ile Perseverance and the Ile Soleil of the housing; the Seychelles Investment Board |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank, since 2015) — the first African country in the class |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airports | Seychelles International Airport at Pointe Larue, 10 km south of Victoria on Mahé, opened in 1971 on the reclaimed reef and inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 March 1972, the runway of 2,987 m of the Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish, Ethiopian, Air France, Edelweiss, Condor and Aeroflot flights, the hub of Air Seychelles, close to a million passengers a year of the tourists and the Twin Otters of Praslin; Praslin Island Airport of the 15-minute hops from Mahé, the busiest domestic route; the airstrips of the outer islands of Desroches, Alphonse, Farquhar, Assumption, Coëtivy, Platte, Denis, Bird and Frégate, 14 airfields in all, six of them paved; the helicopters of Zil Air of the transfers |
|---|---|
| Airline | Air Seychelles — the flag carrier of the state, founded as Seychelles Airlines on 15 September 1977 from Air Mahé and Inter-Island Airways, renamed in September 1978, the first international flights to Frankfurt and London in 1983, the Boeing 767s and the Airbus A330s of the London, Paris, Rome and Singapore routes of the 1990s and 2000s, the Etihad of Abu Dhabi that bought 40% for US$45 million in February 2012 and sold it back to the government on 1 May 2021 after the losses, the restructuring of 2018 that ended the long haul and of 2021 that cut the debt; the two Airbus A320neos and the five Twin Otters of 2025 on Mumbai, Johannesburg, Mauritius, Colombo, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Almaty and Antananarivo and the Praslin shuttle, about 12 destinations; the paint of the tropicbird on the tail |
| Ports | Port Victoria — the harbor of the tuna fleet, the largest tuna transshipment port of the Indian Ocean, the cannery quay, the container port of the Mahé Quay of everything the country imports, the cruise pier of the winter ships, the Coast Guard base and the inter-island jetty; the extension of the commercial port of the 2020s of the European Investment Bank and the French agency's loans for the longer quay and the deeper water; the Eden Island marina of the yachts of the 2000s; the ports of Baie Sainte Anne on Praslin and La Passe on La Digue of the ferries; the inter-island schooners of the outer islands of the Islands Development Company; no merchant fleet of its own beyond the fishing boats |
| Railways | None — never |
| Roads | About 450 km (280 mi), about 400 km paved — the coast road around Mahé of the Victoria–Anse Royale east coast and the Beau Vallon–Port Glaud west, the Sans Souci and the La Misère roads over the mountain of the hairpins, the four-lane of the Providence highway to the airport, the roads of Praslin from Baie Sainte Anne to Anse Lazio; La Digue of the sand tracks, the bicycles and the ox carts and the few electric carts of the hotels; the driving on the left; the SPTC buses of the 250 Tata buses on 106 routes of Mahé and Praslin at a flat fare, the country's transport; the taxis of the airport; the cars of the jams of Victoria; the speed limit of 65 km/h and the 40 of the towns |
| Inter-island | The Cat Cocos catamaran of Mahé to Praslin in an hour, the Cat Rose of Praslin to La Digue in 15 minutes and the Inter Island Ferry, the schooner of the old days; the Twin Otters of Air Seychelles to Praslin every half hour of the day; the helicopters and the charter planes of the outer islands; the Aldabra of the Seychelles Islands Foundation's boat of the two days' sail; the yachts of the charter fleets of Eden Island and Praslin of the sailing between the granite islands |
| Utilities | The Public Utilities Corporation of the power, the water and the sewage — the diesel plants of Victoria and Praslin of the fuel imports, the Port Victoria wind farm of 2013 on the reclaimed islands of Ile du Port and Ile Romainville, 6 MW, the first of the country, the floating solar of the Providence lagoon of the 2020s and the rooftop solar of the schools, the target of 15% renewable the diesel still dwarfs; the water of the Rochon and La Gogue dams, the rivers of Mahé and the desalination plants of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue of the dry seasons; the Seychelles East Africa System submarine cable of 2012 to Dar es Salaam that ended the satellite internet and the PEACE cable of 2022 the second; the Cable & Wireless of 1893 and the Airtel of the phones; the Victoria Hospital and the new hospitals of the Emirates' and the Chinese gifts |
| The islands | The Vallée de Mai and the Anse Lazio of Praslin; the Anse Source d'Argent and the Veuve reserve of La Digue; the Morne Seychellois trails, the Beau Vallon and the Sainte Anne park of Mahé; the tea factory of Morne Blanc; the Botanical Gardens and the market of Victoria; Curieuse of the tortoises; Cousin and Aride of the seabirds; Bird Island of the terns; Silhouette of the mountain; the Alphonse and Desroches of the flats; Aldabra of the few who reach it |
History in dates
| c. 1200s | Arab sailors know the islands — the coco de mer trade |
|---|---|
| 1503 | Vasco da Gama's fleet sights Silhouette, 15 March — the Amirantes named |
| 1609 | The East India Company's Ascension lands, 19 January — uninhabited |
| 1742 | Lazare Picault at Mahé for La Bourdonnais, 21 November |
| 1756 | The Stone of Possession, 1 November — Isles de Séchelles |
| 1770 | The first settlement, Sainte Anne, 27 August — 15 colonists |
| 1778 | L'Établissement du Roi — Victoria founded |
| 1794 | Quéau de Quinssy capitulates to the Orpheus, 16 May — the seven capitulations |
| 1811 | The British take possession, 23 April |
| 1814 | Paris, 30 May — British with Mauritius |
| 1835 | Emancipation |
| 1841 | Victoria named |
| 1861 | The liberated Africans landed, to 1874 |
| 1903 | The Crown Colony, 31 August — the Clock Tower |
| 1956 | Archbishop Makarios exiled to Mahé |
| 1964 | Mancham's and René's parties founded |
| 1967 | Universal suffrage |
| 1971 | The airport opens; the Queen's visit, 1972 |
| 1976 | Independence, 29 June — Mancham; the arms, 27 May; the UN, 21 September |
| 1977 | The coup, 5 June — René |
| 1979 | The one-party state, 26 March |
| 1981 | Hoare's mercenaries repelled, 25 November |
| 1982 | The army mutiny, August |
| 1982 | Aldabra a World Heritage site, 19 November; the Vallée de Mai, 1983 |
| 1985 | The first Festival Kreol |
| 1991 | Multiparty politics restored, 4 December |
| 1993 | The Constitution, 18 June; the first multiparty election, 23–26 July |
| 1996 | The flag and the anthem, 18 June |
| 2004 | René retires, 14 April — Michel; the tsunami, 26 December |
| 2008 | The default; the IMF; the rupee floated, 3 November |
| 2009 | The pirates; the first trials |
| 2011 | The joint management area with Mauritius |
| 2015 | High income; the WTO, 26 April |
| 2016 | The two-term limit; the debt-for-nature swap; the LDS wins the Assembly, September; Michel resigns, 16 October — Faure |
| 2018 | The blue bond, October; the Assumption base refused |
| 2020 | 30% of the sea protected, March; Ramkalawan elected, 24 October |
| 2021 | The moutya inscribed, December; Etihad sells back Air Seychelles, 1 May |
| 2022 | The census passes 100,000, April |
| 2023 | The Providence explosion and the floods, 7 December |
| 2025 | The Beach Soccer World Cup, 1–11 May; the election, 27 September; the runoff, 9–11 October; Herminie sworn in, 26 October; Ernesta Speaker, 28 October; the cabinet, 6 November |
| 2026 | The IMF program's final reviews, 26 May |
Records & firsts
| The smallest country of Africa | About 459 km²; 121,000 people |
|---|---|
| The highest HDI of Africa | 0.848 |
| The highest GDP per head of Africa | About US$20,000 |
| The least corrupt of Africa | Transparency International |
| The world's largest seed | The coco de mer, 25 kg |
| The largest raised coral atoll | Aldabra |
| The largest herd of giant tortoises | Aldabra, 100,000 |
| The only mid-ocean granite islands | The inner islands |
| The first sovereign blue bond | October 2018 |
| The first debt-for-nature swap for the sea | 2016 |
| The Indian Ocean's first marine park | Sainte Anne, 1973 |
| A Creole as an official language | Since 1981 |
| The first Beach Soccer World Cup in Africa | May 2025 |
| The first woman Speaker | Ernesta, 2025 |
| The smallest capital of Africa | Victoria |
| The first African high-income country | 2015 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Seychelles?
The Republic of Seychelles — Repiblik Sesel in the Seychellois Creole of its people and République des Seychelles in French, the three official languages of the Constitution of 1993 — the name of the independence of 29 June 1976, when the crown colony of 1903 left Britain as a republic inside the Commonwealth, and of the republic that lived through the coup of 5 June 1977, the one-party state of 1979 to 1991 and the return of the multiparty constitution of 18 June 1993. The name is French: in 1756 Captain Nicolas Morphey, sent from Mauritius, laid a Stone of Possession on Mahé and named the islands "Isles de Séchelles" for Jean Moreau de Séchelles, the finance minister of Louis XV; the British of 1814 kept the name with the spelling changed. Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, the three islands where nearly everyone lives, carry French names too — Mahé for the governor of Mauritius Mahé de La Bourdonnais, Praslin for the duke who was minister of the navy.
What is the capital of Seychelles?
Victoria — the town on the northeast coast of Mahé the French founded in 1778 as L'Établissement du Roi and the British renamed for their queen in 1841, the smallest capital of Africa with about 27,000 people in the town and most of the country's 120,000 within a bus ride of it, the seat of State House on the hill above the harbor, the National Assembly at Ile du Port, the Supreme Court, the Anglican and Catholic cathedrals, the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke market of the fish and the spices, the Hindu temple of the Indian traders, the Clock Tower of 1903 that copies the Vauxhall clock of London, the Botanical Gardens of the coco de mer and the tortoises, the port of the tuna fleet and the cruise ships, and the reclaimed Eden Island of the marina beside it. The airport is 10 km south at Pointe Larue; the rest of the country is Praslin, an hour by the Cat Cocos ferry, La Digue of the bicycles, and the hundred islands beyond.
How big is Seychelles, and how many people live there?
About 459 km² (177 sq mi) of land — two and a half times the size of Washington, D.C. — spread over 115 islands and 1.34 million km² (517,000 sq mi) of ocean, the smallest country of Africa in land and in people and one of the largest in sea: the 42 granitic islands of the inner group within 90 km of Mahé, where 99 percent of the people live, and the low coral islands of the Amirantes, the Alphonse, the Farquhar and the Aldabra groups scattered 1,200 km toward Madagascar and Africa. Mahé alone is 157 km², Praslin 38 and La Digue 10. The census of April 2022 counted 100,447 people, the first count past 100,000, 84 percent of them citizens and the rest the Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Malagasy and Filipino workers of the hotels, the sites and the boats; the National Bureau of Statistics puts the population at about 121,000 for 2024, growing about a percent a year on the immigration, the fertility at 1.7 children a woman below replacement, and the Seychellois themselves a Creole people of African, French, Indian and Chinese descent, 97 percent of the nation, nine in ten of them on Mahé.
What are the highest and lowest points of Seychelles?
Morne Seychellois, 905 m (2,969 ft), the granite peak of the Morne Seychellois National Park above Victoria on Mahé, in the cloud forest of the endemic jellyfish tree and the Seychelles scops-owl, the park of a fifth of the island; Mont Dauban on Silhouette, 740 m, Fond Azore on Praslin, 367 m, and Belle Vue on La Digue, 333 m, the other peaks of the granite; the coral islands rise a few meters and Aldabra's rim eight. The lowest point is the Indian Ocean. Between them stand the boulders of Anse Source d'Argent on La Digue, the most photographed beach in the world by the brochures' count, the glacis of the bare granite slabs, the Vallée de Mai of Praslin where the coco de mer grows its seed of up to 25 kg, the largest of any plant, and Aldabra, 1,120 km southwest of Mahé, the raised atoll of 34 km by 13 whose lagoon of 196 km² empties and fills through four channels twice a day around the 100,000 giant tortoises of the largest herd on earth.
What currency does Seychelles use?
The Seychellois rupee (ISO code SCR, SR or Rs), of 100 cents, issued by the Central Bank of Seychelles — the rupee of the Mauritius connection of 1914 that the country kept at independence, held at 8 to the U.S. dollar on the black market's two prices until the collapse of 2008, when the government defaulted, went to the IMF and floated the rupee on 3 November 2008 at 16 to the dollar; it trades at about 14 to the dollar and 16 to the euro, and the euro and the dollar of the tourists are taken by the hotels, the fuel and the taxis, the notes carrying the tortoise, the black parrot, the coco de mer and the sailfish of the islands since the series of 2016. Clocks keep Seychelles Time, UTC+4, all year, four hours ahead of London in winter; Seychelles drives on the left, on the 450 km of roads of Mahé and Praslin and the sand tracks of La Digue where the bicycle and the ox cart still carry the visitors.
Who governs Seychelles?
A presidential republic under the Constitution of 1993: the president is head of state and of government, elected for five years and at most two terms since the amendment of 2016, and the National Assembly of 26 constituency members and up to ten proportional seats makes the laws. On 26 September 2026 the president is Dr. Patrick Herminie of United Seychelles, the physician and former Speaker who beat the incumbent Wavel Ramkalawan of Linyon Demokratik Seselwa in the runoff of 9 to 11 October 2025 with 52.73 percent after a first round of 27 September in which no one reached half, and was sworn in at Stade Linité on 26 October 2025, the sixth president of the republic — the return to power of the party of France-Albert René and the one-party years five years after it lost for the first time to Ramkalawan in 2020; Sebastien Pillay is vice president, the cabinet of 13 ministers he named on 6 November 2025 is the first with as many women as men by its own count, and United Seychelles holds 19 of the 34 seats of the 8th Assembly that Azarel Ernesta, the first woman Speaker, presides over, Ramkalawan's LDS the opposition of 15 under Bernard Georges. The next presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2030.
Explore all general-knowledge topics and the A-to-Z lists.
We Value Your Opinion Comments