Cape Verde’s opposition PAICV party is set to return to power after defeating the governing Movement for Democracy in parliamentary elections. Official figures from 98.2% of polling stations showed the PAICV securing 46.7% of the vote and an estimated 37 seats in the 72-member National Assembly, ahead of the ruling party’s 43.6%. Incumbent Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva conceded defeat, though questions remained over whether the PAICV achieved an outright majority. Party leader Francisco Carvalho, currently serving as mayor of the capital Praia, is expected to become prime minister after a decade of opposition rule. The result continues Cape Verde’s long-standing pattern of alternating political power between its two dominant parties. Carvalho is expected to govern alongside President Jose Maria Neves, also a member of the PAICV, under the country’s hybrid presidential-parliamentary system.
Reuters
