Parliamentary elections were held in

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

from 8 to 10 September 2016. Three parties and three independent candidates ran for the 25 directly-elected seats. The result was a victory for the opposition

Linyon Demokratik Seselwa Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (, LDS) is a liberal political coalition which has governed since 2020 in the Seychelles. They have 25 seats in the National Assembly. The coalition was originally made up of the four main opposition parties: the Seyc ...

alliance, which won 19 of the 33 seats. It was the first time since the 1979 elections that the People's Party did not win a majority of seats.

Electoral system

Members of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

are elected by two methods; 25 are elected from single-member constituencies using

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

, and up to a further ten are elected based on the percentage of votes received by each party; for each 10% of the total national vote received, a party gets one additional seat.

Campaign

The four main opposition parties (the

Seychelles National Party The Seychelles National Party (SNP) is a liberal political party in Seychelles. Its followers emphasize active multiparty democracy, respect for human rights and liberal economic reforms. It was founded in response to what it called the "totalit ...

, the Seychellois Alliance, the Seychelles Party for Social Justice and Democracy and the Seychelles United Party) formed a coalition, Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) in order to contest the elections, having boycotted the 2011 elections, which saw the People's Party win all 31 seats. The Seychelles Patriotic Movement nominated 23 candidates for the 25 constituency seats, whilst three independent candidates also ran.Opposition coalition -- LDS -- wins Seychelles' National Assembly in historic electoral transition
Seychelles News Agency, 11 September 2016

Conduct

Two international observer groups were present during the election, the

Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Goals The SADC's goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and se ...

(SADC) and the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

(AU). The SADC observer team of 19 members hailed from eight SADC member countries and covered all 25 constituencies. The AU sent a historic observer team of women-only observers, led by Fatuma Ndangiza, present in the country from 1 to 15 September. Two local observer groups, the Citizens Democracy Watch Seychelles (CDWS) and the Association for Rights, Information, and Democracy (ARID) also provided feedback.

Results

References

{{Seychellois elections Elections in Seychelles

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...