The Cape Verde archipelago on Monday headed towards a run-off presidential election with its two biggest parties neck and neck in provisional results from weekend polls. With nearly all ballots counted from Sunday’s vote, former foreign minister and law professor Jorge Carlos Fonseca from the opposition Movement for Democracy (MFD) was in the lead with 37 percent, election officials said. His rival Manuel Inocencio Sousa, from the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), had 33.9 percent.
“This is an excellent result and a foretaste for victory…. I’m in the run-off, in the second half of the game, and I’m winning,” Sousa told supporters, adding he expected a “significant increase” in votes in the August 21 second round, according to local media.
The results were from 1,120 of 1,200 polling stations in the small island nation, off the northwest coast of Africa, which is often hailed as a success for its political and economic stability.
The ruling PAICV appeared to have overcome Sunday a threat of a split vote, with lawmaker Aristides Lima — who went it alone as an independent — winning 25.6 percent of the votes counted so far. “I recognise that I was beaten, but I remain calm,” he told journalists Monday, without revealing who he would support in the second round.
The two parties have dominated Cape Verde politics since multi-party elections were first held in 1991, with each having ruled for about a decade.
Full Article: AFP: Cape Verde heads to run-off in presidential vote.