This year's presidential election will take place over three days, between May 19th-21st, according to a recent announcement by the election commissioner, Hendrick Guppy. Voting will start on the outer islands on the first two days, followed by the main islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue on the third day. Mr Guppy also declared that the formal nomination of candidates would take place on April 27th, followed by an 18-day campaign period. There is little doubt that the incumbent, James Michel, will stand again for the People's Party (PP, also known as Parti Lepep), which has ruled Seychelles since a coup in 1977-and that his vice-president, Danny Faure, will be his running mate. Mr Michel took over the presidency when his predecessor, Albert René, retired before the end of the official term in 2004-and secured his first victory in 2006, beating Wavel Ramkalawan of the Seychelles National Party (SNP) by a relatively narrow 54 to 46 margin. It is also a near certainty that Mr Ramkalawan will stand again for the SNP-his fourth such attempt The smaller Democratic Party (DP) is expected to field party leader, Ralph Volcere, while three or more candidates may run as independents. The DP and the independent parties will struggle to capture more than a small share of the vote, but these are more likely to come at the expense of the SNP rather than the PP, which will work in the incumbent's favour. Mr Michel will hope that the current economic recovery-following a period of fundamental reforms and deep austerity that won bipartisan support-will boost his re-election prospects, whereas the SNP will hope that voters blame Mr Michel for leading Seychelles into an economic crisis in the first place.