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Cape Verde

Country formed by a group of islands in the Atlantic, west of Senegal (West Africa).

Government

The 1992 constitution provides for a multiparty political system - although religious and geographically based parties are prohibited - with a 79-member national people's assembly and a president, both directly elected and serving five-year terms. The president must secure an absolute majority, while the assembly needs only a simple majority. The prime minister is nominated by the assembly and appointed by the president.

History

The Cape Verde islands were first settled in the 15th century by Portugal, the first black inhabitants being slaves imported from West Africa. Over the next five centuries of Portuguese rule the islands were gradually peopled with Portuguese, African slaves, and people of mixed African-European descent who became the majority. The Cape Verdians kept some African culture but came to speak Portuguese or the Portuguese-derived Creole language, and became Catholics.

A liberation movement developed in the 1950s. The mainland territory to which Cape Verde is linked, Guinea-Bissau, achieved independence 1974, and a process began for their eventual union. A transitional government was set up, composed of Portuguese and members of the African Party for the Independence of Portuguese Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC).

After independence

In 1975 a national people's assembly was elected, and Aristides Pereira, PAIGC secretary general, became president and head of government of Cape Verde. The 1980 constitution provided for the union of the two states but in 1981 this aspect was deleted because of insufficient support, and the PAIGC became the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). From 1981 to 1990 the PAICV was the only permitted political party. Pereira was re-elected, and relations with Guinea-Bissau improved. Under President Pereira, Cape Verde adopted a non-aligned policy and achieved considerable respect within the region. An opposition party, the Independent Democratic Union of Cape Verde (UCID), operated from Portugal.

End of the one-party system

In the first multiparty elections, held in January 1991, a new centre party, Movimento para a Democracia (MPD; Portuguese for Movement for Democracy), won a majority in the assembly. After a very low turnout the following month, Mascarenhas Monteiro was elected president in succession to Pereira. He appointed Carlos Viega as his prime minister. A new constitution was adopted in 1992. Monteiro was re-elected president in February 1996 and in 2000 Gualberto do Rosário, leader of the MPD, became prime minister. In January 2001, the opposition socialist Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde (PAICV; African Party of Independence of Cape Verde) defeated the MPD in parliamentary elections. In February, José Maria Neves became prime minister, and socialist and former prime minister Pedro Pires was peacefully elected president.

Andrade, Mario Pinto de Blyth, Chay (Charles) Cabral, Amilcar Cabral, Luiz de Almeida Economic Community of West African States

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