President Steps Down After 27 Years

France Albert Rene stepped down after nearly three decades as president of the Indian Ocean nation of Seychelles.

Rene, 68, who seized power in a 1977 coup a year after independence from Britain, handed over his post to James Michel, his vice president, at a ceremony at State House, said Gilbert Pool, Rene’s spokesman.

Rene’s reign was marked by socialist economic policies. After seizing power, Rene turned the Seychelles into a single-party state, but in 1992 agreed to restore multiparty politics. Rene won elections in 1993, 1998 and 2001 and would have been obliged to step down ahead of the next vote, set for 2006.