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72 seats in the National Assembly 37 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 347,622 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 65.97% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parliamentary elections were held in Cape Verde on 20 March 2016. [1] The ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), led by Janira Hopffer Almada, was defeated by the Movement for Democracy (MpD), led by Ulisses Correia e Silva. [2]
The 72 members of the National Assembly are elected from 16 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from 2 to 15 seats. The elections are held using closed list proportional representation, with seats allocated using the d'Hondt method. [3]
A total of 551 candidates ran for election, including 173 women. [4]
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Movement for Democracy | 122,881 | 54.48 | 40 | +8 | |
| African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde | 86,078 | 38.16 | 29 | –9 | |
| Democratic and Independent Cape Verdean Union | 15,488 | 6.87 | 3 | +1 | |
| People's Party | 777 | 0.34 | 0 | New | |
| Social Democratic Party | 232 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | |
| Labour and Solidarity Party | 107 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 225,563 | 100.00 | 72 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 225,563 | 98.35 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 3,774 | 1.65 | |||
| Total votes | 229,337 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 347,622 | 65.97 | |||
| Source: CNE | |||||
Politics of Cape Verde takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Cape Verde is the head of government and the President of the Republic of Cape Verde is the head of state, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The constitution, first approved in 1980 and substantially revised in 1992, forms the basis of government organization. It declares that the government is the "organ that defines, leads, and executes the general internal and external policy of the country" and is responsible to the National Assembly.
The recorded history of Cape Verde begins with the Portuguese discovery of the island in 1458. Possible early references to Cape Verde date back at least 2,000 years.
The Community of Portuguese Language Countries, also known as the Lusophone Community, is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across five continents, where Portuguese is an official language. The CPLP operates as a privileged, multilateral forum for the mutual cooperation of the governments, economies, non-governmental organizations, and peoples of the Lusofonia. The CPLP consists of 9 member states and 33 associate observers, located in Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, totaling 38 countries and 4 organizations.
José Maria Pereira Neves is a Cape Verdean politician who is currently the president of Cape Verde, having previously served as the Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 2001 to 2016. He is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). In the 2021 presidential election, he was elected with 51.7% of votes, beating his nearest rival Carlos Veiga who got 42.4% of the total votes.
The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s and was one of the belligerents in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence. Towards the end of the war, the party established a socialist one-party state, which remained intact until multi-party democracy was introduced in the early 1990s. Although the party won the first multi-party elections in 1994, it was removed from power in the 1999–2000 elections. However, it returned to office after winning parliamentary elections in 2004 and presidential elections in 2005, since which it has remained the largest party in the National People's Assembly.
The African Party of Independence of Cape Verde is a democratic socialist political party in Cape Verde. It was formerly a Marxist–Leninist communist party and the sole legal party in the country from 1981 to 1990. Its members are nicknamed "os tambarinas" in Portuguese, and they identify themselves with the color yellow.
The Cape Verde national football team represents Cape Verde in men's international football, and is controlled by the Cape Verdean Football Federation. The team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, but has qualified for four Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, in 2013, 2015, 2021 and 2023. The team achieved their best result in 2023 after making it past the first round of the knockout stage.
The Democratic and Independent Cape Verdean Union is a conservative political party in Cape Verde.
Amílcar Cabral International Airport, also known as Sal International Airport, is the main international airport of Cape Verde. The airport is named after the revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral. It is located two km west-southwest from Espargos on Sal Island. Sal is the main hub for the national airline, Cabo Verde Airlines; and serves as a base for carrier Cabo Verde Express. This airport was also one of NASA's locations for a facility to handle the Space Shuttle after reentering from orbit.
The National Assembly is the unicameral legislative body of the Republic of Cabo Verde.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Cape Verde are afforded some legal protections, and Cape Verde is considered a gay tolerant country. Homosexual activity has been legal in Cape Verde since 2004. Additionally, since 2008, employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been banned, making Cape Verde one of the few African countries to have such protections for LGBT people. Nevertheless, Cape Verde does not recognize same-sex unions or marriages, meaning that same-sex couples may still face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Households headed by same-sex couples are also not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an archipelago and island country of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi). These islands lie between 600 and 850 kilometres west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. The Cape Verde islands form part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Savage Isles.
Cape Verde–Guinea Bissau relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the Republic of Cape Verde and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Cape Verde is an island country about 900 km north-west of Guinea-Bissau, a coastal West African country. Both were colonies of the Portuguese Empire and they campaigned together for independence with a plan for unification, but the countries separated after 1980. The two countries were both founder members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in 1996, and are each members of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Presidential elections were held in Cape Verde on 2 October 2016. Incumbent President Jorge Carlos Fonseca of the Movement for Democracy (MpD) was re-elected with 74% of the vote.
José Ulisses de Pina Correia e Silva is a Cape Verdean businessman and politician who has been Prime Minister of Cape Verde since 22 April 2016.
Parliamentary elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 10 March 2019. They were originally scheduled for 18 November 2018 following an ECOWAS brokered agreement between President José Mário Vaz and the opposition in April 2018, but the electoral census was not completed until 20 November, and Prime Minister Aristides Gomes subsequently proposed 16 December, 30 December, or 27 January 2019 as possible alternative dates. The election date was settled following a presidential decree issued in December 2018.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Cape Verde is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached Cape Verde in March 2020.
Parliamentary elections were held in Cape Verde on 18 April 2021.
Presidential elections were held in Cape Verde on 17 October 2021. The result was a victory for José Maria Neves of the opposition African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), who received 51.8% of the vote.
