Seychelles Presidential candidate David Pierre says he will "accept the majority's decision if the election is declared free and fair"

The Leader of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) casting his vote at Glacis this afternoon. (Salifa Magnan, Seychelles News Agency)

(Seychelles News Agency) - Contesting a presidential election for the very first time, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, David Pierre made his vote count in the northern district of Glacis, on the main island of Mahe, this afternoon.

The polling station at Glacis is located at the newly re-built Glacis Primary school.

Pierre who is also the leader of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), was among the 3,277 eligible voters in the Glacis district, which includes 1,618 women and 1,659 men.

PDM is the only opposition party that currently holds a seat in the National Assembly alongside the ruling 'Parti Lepep' members, as other opposition parties boycotted the legislative elections in 2011.

David Pierre who was the last candidate to vote, says that he chose to do so in the afternoon, because in the morning he was in the south, west and east of Mahe, where he was observing the voting process and that he is aiming to visit all polling stations on Mahe.

Pierre has also highlighted some reports of irregularities in the voting process in some electoral districts.

“It is clear that it [an election] will never be perfect, but in general, people are satisfied with the organization… There are certain districts where ballot papers that have come in from voting that took place on Thursday and Friday on the other islands where there were differences in maybe one, two or three ballot papers compared to the amount of people that had supposedly voted and the amount of votes that has come in…I think these irregularities, are the small irregularities that we should take seriously and the necessary must be done to ensure that nothing significant enough comes up for this election to be declared null and void.”

Pierre urged the Seychellois nation to believe in democracy and to accept the majority's decision.

"Once people have made their decisions, votes are counted and the results are announced, if it is declared that the elections were fair and free, then on my part I will have to accept the results as the decision of the majority and after that ask all Seychellois including my supporters to make sure that we respect the decision of the majority Seychellois.”

Voting will be over in the Seychelles Islands in less than an hour where the doors of polling stations will be closed at 7pm across 25 electoral districts on the three main inhabited islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.

Thursday and Friday were the first two days of voting for people living and working on some of the more remote islands as well as in several special stations catering for example for people who work in essential services and are on duty today as well as or detained persons, either in holding cells or prisoners awaiting trial.

Some 70,943 voters were eligible to vote in the elections.

A record number of six candidates are contesting the presidential elections. This includes the outgoing President James Michel of the ruling 'Parti Lepep' who is seeking a third and final mandate.

Apart from David Pierre, the other first timers are Patrick Pillay a former high-ranking figure within 'Parti Lepep' and Alexia Amesbury the first female presidential candidate.

There are also two contenders who have stood a number of times; Wavel Ramkalawan of the Seychelles National Party and the sole independent candidate Philippe Boullé.