Opposition candidate and former Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves won the Cape Verde presidential elections on Sunday Oct 17. He defeated his arch-rival and ruling party presidential candidate Carlos Veiga.
The sitting president Jorge Carlos Fonseca, 61, shall be stepping down after serving his two terms of five years each as allowed by the country’s constitution. The President elected served as a Prime Minister between 2000 – 2016. He will be responsible for stabilising Cape Verde’s tourism-led economy after Covid-19 pandemic pushed it into a recession.
Jose Maria won 51.5 percent of the total votes cast according to the results based on the 97 percent of the votes counted. This was an absolute majority and it effectively a second-round run-off.
Carlos Veiga received 42.4 percent of the votes while five other candidates all won less than 2 percent each. The voter turn out was reported to be 48.3 percent. The ruling party candidate, Veiga, also served as a Prime Minister from 1991 – 2000. He represented the center-right movement for Democracy (MpD). He conceded defeat on Sunday.
He said;
“The will of the people was heard and the will of the people was granted.
“I want to offer my congratulations to Jose Maria on his election as president of the republic.”
Jose Maria said the following to his supporters:
“I must say that it is a great responsibility to preside over the Cape Verdean nation in these difficult times, and I receive this victory with the great humility that has always characterised me.”
Cape Verde is one of Africa’s most stable democracies since the world has witnessed the transfer of power between MpD and PAICV four times since independence in 1975.
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