What politics costs you.
Three sets of hands reach into the same purse. The people the President appoints, the members you elect, and the parties that fight the election. Here is what each of them is paid, and where every rupee comes from. It comes from you. All of it is public, once you know which document to open. So we opened them.
What the President and the cabinet are paid.
These are the people the President appoints, not the ones you elect. Their pay is set by law and printed in the government's own 2026 Budget. It is salary and gratuity only, before a single car, house, allowance, member of staff or plane ticket is added.
On top of the pay come the cars, the houses, the allowances, the staff and the travel. The Office of the President's 2026 budget by itself is SCR 86.70M, and the state also pays SCR 5.08M a year in pensions to former presidents and vice-presidents. What the travelling costs, we counted on The Receipts.
And the layers stacked on top.
The cabinet is only the part you can see. Around it sits a tier of Secretaries of State, Special Advisers, Chiefs and Principal Secretaries, then a wave of fresh boards and commissions. Each one is a salary, an office and a set of allowances. None of it is in the cabinet total above. All of it is on the government’s own pages.
The Office of the President
Eleven senior posts around one man, listed on State House’s own roster.
- Chief of Staff, Presidential Affairs and Economic Advisor
- Special Advisor
- Principal Secretary of the Office of the President
- Secretary of State, Cabinet Affairs
- Chief Presidential Protocol
- Chief Press Secretary
- Principal Secretary for Public Affairs
- Principal Secretary, Government Implementation and Delivery
- Chief PR and Communication Advisor
- Deputy Cabinet Secretary
- Director General, Human Resources, Budget Management and Administration
A new tier: Secretaries of State
A rank this government created, above principal secretary. The 2026 Budget gives its posts their own overseas airfares, a newly created Private Secretary and rented offices.
- Secretary of State, Cabinet Affairs
- Secretary of State for Lands, Housing and Infrastructure Mr Joseph François
- Secretary of State for Finance Mr Patrick Payet
Boards and commissions, in a single month
Six senior appointments in August 2026 alone, each a fresh set of paid seats.
The pay of the Secretaries of State and the advisers is not broken out in the emoluments schedule. It sits inside office budgets like this one. The Office of the President’s whole 2026 budget is SCR 86.70M, up from SCR 74.63M in 2024. That is before the boards, whose members draw their own fees.
What your 34 members of the Assembly are paid.
Every member draws the same basic salary, and it climbs one step every year they serve. A handful earn a top-up for holding an office. This is the pay set out in the National Assembly Members' Emoluments Act.
Before allowances. Every member also draws a representation allowance, and the members who live on the outer islands draw a travel allowance on top. And every member is owed a pension for life once they leave, worth 5/12 of one percent of the salary for each month served. Which member holds your seat, and how to reach them, is on Your MNA.
What the parties are handed, straight from your taxes.
Political parties in Seychelles are paid from a public fund, filled with your money. The 2026 Budget puts SCR 6.50M into it. The law then splits that money in exact proportion to the votes each party won at the last election. The party already in power gets the most. The newcomer gets the least. Here is where every rupee of it goes.
How it works, by law. Under the Political Parties (Registration and Regulation) Act (sections 27 to 29), the Electoral Commission sets the total each year by the 30th of January, and each party that stood candidates is paid the share of the fund that matches its share of the valid votes cast, paid out quarterly. A party that did not contest gets nothing but a prorated minimum. We use the amount the 2026 Budget sets aside. The Commission fixes the exact sum paid each year.
How we know, line by line.
Nothing on this page is our estimate. Every figure is lifted from a public document. Where the government makes you dig, we dug.
- Appointees' pay.Republic of Seychelles, 2026 Budget Estimates, Constitutional Appointees Emoluments, and the Emoluments Acts for the President, Vice-President and ministers.
- The tier on top, and the boards.State House's own government roster at statehouse.gov.sc/the-cabinet, and its own appointment notices, each linked in section 1. The Office of the President's wage bill and budget are from the 2026 Budget Estimates.
- Members' pay.National Assembly Members' Emoluments Act (Cap 286), as amended by the Public Service Salary (Amendment) Act 2024, tied to salary band 13 of the Public Service Salary Table. Leadership figures from the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
- Party fund.the 2026 Budget line "Contribution to Political Parties", and the Political Parties (Registration and Regulation) Act, sections 27 to 29.
- Vote shares.the Electoral Commission's official results for the 2025 National Assembly election.
This is what the machine costs. You paid for all of it.
A government worth electing would publish this itself, in one place, every year, without being asked and without being chased through eight-hundred-page documents. Until one does, we will keep the count.