Wavel Ramkalawan

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Wavel Ramkalawan was born on 15 March 1961 in Mahé,
the principal island of the Seychelles. Ramkalawan was educated locally at
Seychelles College for his primary and secondary studies. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">He later moved into religious training and became an
ordained Anglican priest. He studied theology at St. Paul’s Theological College
in Mauritius and furthered his theological education at the University of
Birmingham in the United Kingdom. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">His pastoral career brought him into close
contact with people suffering social hardship, human rights abuses, and
limitations on civil liberties, experiences that motivated his gradual entry
into political activism.&nbsp; For Ramkalawan,
the Church was one of the few spaces in Seychelles that could speak on social
issues, offering him a platform to engage in public discourse. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Ramkalawan’s political career dates back to the early
1990s, when multi-party politics was reinstated in Seychelles. He was elected
as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1993 as part of the opposition, and served in
opposition from 1993 to 2011, and again from 2016 to 2020. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">For long periods, he
served as Leader of the Opposition (1998–2011 and 2016–2020). His repeated
challenges for the presidency (including close contests in 2015) made him a
well-known figure in Seychellois politics. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">In October 2020, Ramkalawan achieved a historic
breakthrough: in that presidential election, he defeated the then-incumbent
Danny Faure, claiming about 54.9 % of the vote. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:
&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">His victory was significant as
it marked the first time since independence that an opposition candidate had
unseated the ruling party peacefully, ushering in the first peaceful transfer
of power in Seychelles. As President, he emphasised a platform of national
unity, inclusive governance, renewal of institutions, anti-corruption measures,
and sustainable development. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p>

<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:Aptos;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">In the 2025 election,
he is seeking a second term amid challenges such as economic recovery, the cost
of living, infrastructure, and land use debates, including controversy around the
leasing of islands to foreign companies.</span></p>