The Seychelles National Assembly, the island nation's legislative body, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in the Third Republic on July 31. This will coincide with the return to multi-party democracy in 1993.

SNA looks at the five Speakers of the National Assembly since 1993.

Francis MacGregor

MacGregor, 73 years old, who was a Seychellois judge and politician from the then Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF) served as the first Speaker. He was appointed after the 1993 multiparty elections and was the Speaker of the National Assembly from 1993 to 2007.

Prior to being Speaker, he was elected as the chairman of the People's Assembly after the 1987 elections.

McGregor, a lawyer by profession, also served as a judge in the judiciary of Seychelles. He was the president of the Seychelles Court of Appeal from 2007 to 2019.

(Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

Patrick Herminie

Herminie, 60 years old, is a Seychellois politician who served as a Speaker of the National Assembly of Seychelles from 2007 to 2016.

He was first elected to the Assembly in 1993 and served as Leader of Government Business from 1998 to 2003. He was elected as Speaker on May 29, 2007.

Herminie, who is a medical doctor by profession, was elected leader of the United Seychelles political party in 2021.

(Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

Patrick Pillay

Pillay is a Seychellois politician who was the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Seychelles from 2016 to 2018. He previously served as Minister of External Affairs and Minister of Health. In 2010, he was appointed resident High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

He formed his own political party ? Lalyans Seselwa ? and contested the presidential election in 2015, coming out third in the first round with a score of 14.19 percent ? a record for a first-timer.

Pillay stood in the September 2016 parliamentary election as a candidate of the opposition Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) coalition in Anse Boileau and was elected for a seat in the National Assembly. The LDS won a majority of seats, and Pillay was elected as Speaker of the National Assembly on 27 September 2016.

He resigned on January 29, 2018, from both the position of Speaker and member of the national assembly.

(Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

Nicholas Prea

Prea, 58, was sworn in as the fourth speaker of the National Assembly in March 2018 after the resignation of Patrick Pillay. Prea who was the elected member for the district of Bel Ombre, was the speaker of the National Assembly until he resigned and stepped down on October 29, 2020.

An engineer by profession, Prea was secretary general of the Seychelles National Party until his resignation on 17 February 2020.

(Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

Roger Mancienne

Roger Mancienne, 66 years old, is the current Speaker of the National Assembly of Seychelles. He was sworn in on October 28, 2020, after his party, Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS) won 20 out of 26 constituencies.

Mancienne was a founding member of the Parti Seselwa formed after the return of multi-party in 1993.

In 2015, he was the Vice-Presidential nominee for the Seychelles National Party alongside Wavel Ramkalawan as the Presidential candidate. The party narrowly lost this election but went on to further consolidate the opposition with the formation of Linyon Demokratik Seselwa, (LDS), with Mancienne as Party Leader. He was formerly chief editor of the Regar newspaper.

Source: Seychelles News Agency