![]() |
---|
The Constitution of Cape Verde is the supreme law of the Republic of Cape Verde. Adopted in 1980, [1] the constitution has been amended seven times. [2]
Cape Verde is a country that consists of a group of islands off the western coast of Senegal. [3] The Portuguese arrived in Cape Verde in 1462, and the islands became a part of the Portuguese Empire in 1495. After many Caboverdeans fought in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence from 1963 to 1974, both Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde were eventually granted independence. After Cape Verde's independence on 5 July 1975, [1] the organization responsible for the movement, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), [4] initially worked for the unification of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. However, after the 1980 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état, the two countries separated, and the PAIGC became the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). [5] In 1980, the first version of the constitution was written and adopted, and in 1981 it was amended to include Article 4, which established the PAICV as the only legal political party, forming a one-party state. [1]
Originally intended to be a socialist state with a planned economy, [1] the PAICV remained in power until the constitution was amended in 1990, when Article 4 was repealed from the constitution. Subsequently, in the 1991 Cape Verdean parliamentary election, Movement for Democracy (MpD), won approximately 70% of the seats in the National Assembly. [6]
Another amendment to the constitution was adopted on 4 September 1992 and went into effect on 25 September 1992. Modeled after the Constitution of Portugal, the new amendment entrenched the ideas of political pluralism and a balance of powers in government, [7] creating a multi-party system. [8] This was further expanded upon by an amendment in 1999, which specifically defined the nation as "a sovereign, unitary and democratic republic, which guarantees respect for human dignity and recognises the inviolability and inalienability of human rights as the foundation of the entire human community, of peace and of justice". [1] [9] The constitution was last amended in 2010. [2]
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 invasion and colonization of the island in 1458. Possible early references to Cape Verde date back at least 2,000 years.
"Esta É a Nossa Pátria Bem Amada" is the national anthem of Guinea-Bissau. Written in 1963 by Amílcar Cabral (1924–1973) and composed by Xiao He (1918–2010), it was adopted upon independence from Portugal in 1974.
Aristides Maria Pereira was a Cape Verdean politician. He was the first President of Cape Verde, serving from 1975 to 1991.
Pedro de Verona Rodrigues Pires is a Cape Verdean politician who served as Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 1975 to 1991, and later as President from 2001 to 2011.
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.
Luís Severino de Almeida Cabral was a Bissau-Guinean politician who was the first President of Guinea-Bissau. He served from 1974 to 1980, when a military coup d'état led by João Bernardo Vieira deposed him. Luís Cabral was a half-brother of Amílcar Cabral, with whom he co-founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in 1956.
The national flag of Cape Verde was adopted on 22 September 1992, replacing the flag adopted during Cape Verdean independence, fought for with Guinea-Bissau, another former Portuguese colony on mainland West Africa.
The national flag of Guinea-Bissau was adopted in 1973 when independence from Portugal was proclaimed.
Amílcar Lopes Cabral was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, political organizer, and diplomat. He was one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders. He was also a pan-Africanist and intellectual nationalist revolutionary poet.
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.
João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was a Bissau-Guinean politician who served as President of Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1999, except for a three-day period in May 1984, and from 2005 until his assassination in 2009.
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 Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, also known as the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence, was an armed independence conflict that took place in Portuguese Guinea from 1963 to 1974. It was fought between Portugal and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, an armed independence movement backed by Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. The war is commonly referred to as "Portugal's Vietnam" because it was a protracted guerrilla war which had extremely high costs in men and materiel and which created significant internal political turmoil in Portugal.
The National Assembly is the unicameral legislative body of the Republic of Cabo Verde.
Youth of PAICV is the youth organisation of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde.
Guinea-Bissau–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between Guinea-Bissau and Russia.
Onésimo Silveira was a Cape Verdean politician and writer.
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).
The 1980 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état was the bloodless military coup that took place in Guinea-Bissau on 14 November 1980, led by Prime Minister General João Bernardo Vieira. It led to the deposition of President Luís Cabral, who held the office since 1973, while the country's War of Independence was still ongoing.