The center-right opposition won Sunday’s legislative elections in Sao Tome and Principe, the Electoral Commission announced Tuesday, but did not give the distribution of seats that will determine whether the center-left coalition will cede power or not.
The small, impoverished archipelago nestled in the Gulf of Guinea in Central Africa, used to alternating power, is considered a model of parliamentary democracy on the continent.
The Independent Democratic Action (ADI, center-right), the main opposition party in the outgoing National Assembly, “won the legislative elections with a total of 36,549 votes,” announced the National Electoral Commission (CEN). “The Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe-Social Democratic Party (MLSTP-PSD, center-left),” led by Prime Minister Jorge Bom Jesus, came in second with 25,531 votes, according to the CEN
The abstention rate was 34.33 per cent in the proportional representation vote.
It is up to the Constitutional Court, which had not yet done so on Tuesday evening, to deliver the distribution of the 55 seats of the unicameral Parliament, which will determine whether a governing coalition emerges.
In statements to STP-Press, ADI leader, former Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada (2010-2012 and 2014-2018) said that his party alone was assured of winning an absolute majority with 30 seats, which the MLSTP-PSD immediately disputed. The MLSTP-PSD immediately disputed this. with 22 to 24 seats assured, it can count on the addition of 8 to 9 seats from two small left-wing or centre-left formations to maintain a majority, the movement said.
MLSTP and ADI have been fighting for the leadership of the country since its independence from Portugal in 1975, at least since the former, which was the only party in a Marxist Sao Tome until 1991, opened the country to a multi-party system.