Seychelles’ Opposition leader Wavel Ramkalawan has won the presidential election on Sunday, AFP reported quoting the electoral commission. An Anglican priest, this was Ramkalawan’s sixth shot at the presidency.

This is the first opposition victory since the archipelago’s independence from Britain 40 years ago.

He garnered 54.9% of votes against 43.5% for incumbent Danny Faure to become the fifth president of Seychelles, the commission said.

Ramkalawan’s party, the Linyon Democratik Seselwa (Seychelles Democratic Alliance) clinched a landmark victory in the parliamentary polls in September 2016.

This was Ramkalawan’s sixth bid to the presidency, the last one he lost to Faure’s predecessor James Michel, who resigned in 2016 leading to Faure’s ascendancy. 

Faure’s United Seychelles ruling party has been in power since 1977.

The pristine archipelagic island nation of 98,000 residents went to the three-day polls on Thursday. The majority of them live on the islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, who cast their ballots on Saturday.