Final day of Seychelles elections

Opposition leaders say islanders are ready for change

Initial election results in the Seychelle islands are expected to be revealed on Sunday night, after voting ceases on the last of three polling days.

The poll, which began on Friday, presents the greatest test in the incumbent President Albert Rene's 24 years in power.

Mr Rene's main rival is Wavel Ramkalawan, an Anglican priest. Another challenger is a lawyer, Philip Boulle.

Hoping to win his final five-year mandate, Mr Rene called the election two years before the end of his current term, which was scheduled to end only in 2003.

His party, the Seychelles People's Progressive Front, said it hoped an early election would renew investor confidence.

Voting process

There are 60,000 voters in Seychelles and majority of them live in the three main islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, where long queues formed at polling stations on Sunday.

Ballot boxes have also been airlifted around some of the 115 islands that make up the Seychelles.

President Rene is blamed for economic woes

On Friday, a light plane flew 1,100 kilometres (700 miles) to ferry a ballot box to Assomption Island so that six people could cast their votes, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Another box was then taken on a four-hour boat trip to Aldabra Island, where there are only eight registered voters, and giant tortoises outnumber people.

Few expect Mr Ramkalawan to win, but economic troubles have raised opposition hopes for an upset.

An opposition newspaper editor, Roger Mancienne, told Reuters news agency that there was great excitement about these elections.

"That's partly because the opposition has made gains that have given a lot of people hope that change is possible," he said.

Envy of Africa

Until now, Mr Rene's immense popularity has spelled certain victory at the ballot box.

The 65-year-old brought his people a welfare state that is the envy of Africa.

He won more than 60% of the vote in the last elections in 1998 against Mr Ramkalawan's 20%.

But the Seychelles has suffered a severe foreign exchange shortage in the past year, which has hurt small businesses and emptied shop shelves.

Mr Rene's political rivals blame the island's woes on a civil service and judiciary they say is rife with nepotism and corruption.

This, they say, is a hangover from the days of one-party rule. The first multi-party elections were held in 1993.