Cape Verde: Jorge Carlos Fonseca Wins Presidential Poll

By Staff Writer

Jorge Carlos Fonseca, 61, Cape Verde's opposition leader, won the island nation’s presidential election runoff Sunday, securing 54.90 percent of the vote to beat ruling party rival Manuel Inocencio Sousa, authorities said.

His socialist challenger, Sousa, 60, who garnered 45.91 percent of the vote has conceded defeat after 92 percent of the overall ballots were counted by Monday morning.

Fonseca of the Movement for Democracy (MFD), who takes over from ruling party’s Pedro Pires after the incumbent’s two terms in office, is the fourth president to rule the Atlantic archipelago nation since independence.

He will have to govern with a prime minister from the PAICV ruling party after they won a parliamentary election held in February.

Over 300,000 citizens are said to have voted in the polls which were held both on the islands and in 241 polling stations abroad.

In brief remarks upon the news of his victory, Mr Fonseca pledged to maintain the political stability that the country has enjoyed since independence in 1975.

During the first round election, Mr Fonseca came first with 37 percent of the votes against 34 per cent for his rival who was the candidate of the PAIVC (Socialist) party of outgoing President Pedro Pires, whose two five-year mandate expires this month.

The country's economy is dominated by the service sector, representing 85 percent of GDP, and tourism contributed 25 percent to GDP, with 400,000 visitors in 2010.

In 2008, Cape Verde became the second African country after Botswana to be promoted by the United Nations out of the ranks of the 50 least developed countries.

Its status as a middle-income country classed by the United Nations puts it under further pressure as its eligibility for debt relief and soft loan terms take a knock, and several countries have already phased out aid. Unemployment and poverty are still high, forcing many people to emigrate. Official statistic show that more Cape Verdeans (700,000) live abroad than at home (500,000).

According to the UN and African Development Bank-backed African Economic Outlook, Cape Verde is one of the few African countries likely to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, if it gets the donor