Seychelles

Seyechelles became independent from the United Kingdom on 29 June 1976. Seychelles became a socialist one-party state after a coup in 1977 in which President James Mancham was deposed.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, socialist rule came to an end with a new constitution and free elections in 1993. President France-Albert Rene, who had served since 1977, was re-elected in 2001, but stepped down in 2004. Vice President James Michel took over the presidency. In May 2011 Michel was elected to a further term of office during presidential elections, having been elected in 2006.

In the October 2011 parliamentary elections, opposition candidates failed to secure a single seat when the main opposition party boycotted the election. The leader of the Seychelles National Party, Wavel Ramkalawan, called for the boycott to protest the alleged electoral misconduct that he alleges led to his defeat in the presidential elections.

Seychelles has a mixed legal system of English common law, French civil law, and customary law.

Seychelles has a Constitution dating from 1993.