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16. Mancham was immediately attracted to the idea which, from his point of view, solved several problems for which no obvious answer was in sight. It would effectively stifle the movement towards early elections which he was not certain to win and for
which there were an uncomfortable number of precedents in the history of British decolonization. It would ensure rapid agree- ment on all other outstanding issues at the Second Constitutional Conference and make independence certain by the due date. He would emerge as his country's first President; and, provided he could effectively maintain control over National Security and Defence, he could be reasonably confident of being able to live the itinerant and extravagant life which had become a necessity to him without the fear of an early coup d'etat at home.
Such, at any rate, were the reasons he gave Mr Larmour and his colleagues in December.
17. The advantages to Rend were no less evident. In return for his agreement not to press for early elections (which he might reasonably have expected to have led to a breakdown of the Second Constitutional Conference for which he, and the SPUP would carry the blame), he could, on independence, ensure for himself
the second place in the Seychelles political hierarchy, a con-
siderable advance for someone who a few months before had held no
official post. He could have the reasonable expectation of finding an opportunity in due course to oust Mancham and meanwhile of being under considerably less threat of imprisonment or exile than had appeared likely if the Coalition were for any reason to break with
Mancham still head of Government. Characteristically, he did not explain his reasons in such terms to Mr Larmour and his team but rested his case on the broad principle that it was hardly appropriate for a small country like Seychelles to support two contending parties when the need was for national unity in the face
of an uncertain future. His expectation, therefore, was that the Coalition would gradually evolve into a single party and that Seychelles in due couse would become a one-party State where
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