The people of Seychelles voted Saturday in a runoff between President Wavel Ramkalawan and opposition challenger Patrick Herminie, whose party seeks a return to power after previously ruling the country for four decades.

There was no outright winner in elections held two weeks ago, with Herminie receiving 48.8% of the vote and Ramkalawan getting 46.4%, according to official results.

A candidate needs to win more than 50% of the vote to be declared victorious.

Early voting started on Thursday, but most Seychellois are voting on Saturday. Polling stations opened shortly after 7am local time and results are expected on Sunday.

The contest between Herminie and Ramkalawan is widely seen as a tight race. Both candidates have run spirited campaigns as they try to address key issues for voters, including environmental damage and a crisis of drug addiction in a country long seen as a tourist haven.

Africa’s richest

Herminie represents the United Seychelles party, which dominated the country's politics for decades before losing power five years go. It was the governing party from 1977 to 2020.

Ramkalawan, of the governing Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party, is seeking a second term.

The 115-island archipelago in the Indian Ocean has become synonymous with luxury and environmental travel, which has bumped Seychelles to the top of the list of Africa’s richest countries by gross domestic product per capita, according to the World Bank.

But opposition to the governing party has been growing.

An island nation, Seychelles is especially vulnerable to climate change, including rising sea levels, according to the World Bank and the UN Sustainable Development Group.