Typical early twentieth-century house, Mahé

Steet scene, suburbs of Victoria
CourtesÍÍÍÍy Brian Kensley

Between 1979 and 1993, Seychelles was governed under a single-party socialist system. President René, who had assumed power in a military coup d'état in 1977, had been the sole candidate in the presidential elections of 1979, 1984, and 1989, each time winning an affirmative vote of more than 90 percent.

The SPPF agreed to relinquish its monopoly of power in December 1991 when a party congress approved René's proposal to allow other political groups to be registered (see Return to a Multiparty System , this ch.). Groups receiving sufficient popular support were permitted to take part in revising the constitution. A first effort to produce a new constitution failed in a referendum in November 1992, but after further negotiations constitutional changes were approved the following June. Multiparty elections followed in July 1993 in which René and the SPPF were again victorious.

Data as of August 1994