Cape Verde’s President Neves to run for re-election in November

By AFP

Cape Verde President Jose Maria Neves will run for a second five-year term in the country’s November elections, he announced Monday.

The west African archipelago nation, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Senegal, heads to the polls on November 15.

Neves, 66, served as prime minister from 2001 to 2016 and was elected president in 2021.

The president of the National Assembly, Janira Hopffer Almada, will serve as interim president of Cape Verde for the next two months now that Neves has made his announcement.

“I will run for a new five-year term to put the experience I have gained at the service of the future, to champion causes I have pursued and which cannot be circumscribed to one sole election cycle and to build a victorious and prosperous nation,” he told a press briefing in the capital, Praia.

Nine people have already announced their intention to run for president, however they must submit the required documents to the country’s constitutional court before Wednesday.

Candidates for the Cape Verde presidency are put forward by figures from civil society. Parties may support a presidential candidate although the president cannot belong to a party.

Neves indicated that he was seeking the support of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), which he formerly led, while also calling for broader backing.

Cape Verde, an archipelago of 520,000 inhabitants in the Atlantic Ocean, lies some 600 kilometres off the coast.

A former Portuguese colony until 1975, it has been seen as a model of democracy in Africa.

Since the first free elections in 1991, the country has enjoyed relative calm with no electoral violence, despite two five-year periods of political cohabitation between different parties heading the government and presidency.

The country, however, faces significant social challenges, including poverty and youth unemployment.