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Cape Verde

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

Government

Cape Verde's 1992 constitution provides for a multiparty political system – although religious and geographically based parties are prohibited – with a 72-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's deputies are elected through proportional representation. The prime minister is nominated by the assembly and appointed by the president.

History

The Cape Verde islands were uninhabited before the arrival of Portuguese seafarers in 1460. The Portuguese settled the islands and imported slaves from West Africa to work on sugarcane plantations. 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. The island prospered from the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century, but suffered from severe recurrent droughts, claiming over 100,000 lives in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A liberation movement developed in the 1950s, spearheaded by the African Party for the Independence of Portuguese Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), led by Amilcar Cabral. The mainland territory to which Cape Verde is linked, Guinea-Bissau, achieved independence in 1974, after the downfall of the right-wing dictatorship in Portugal. This had followed a long war for liberation in which many from Cape Verde participated and a process began for their eventual union. A transitional government was set up in Cape Verde, composed of Portuguese and members of the PAIGC.

After independence

In 1975 the islands achieved independence from Portugal. 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 the islands achieved independence from Portugal. In 1981 this aspect of the constitution 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 response to growing popular pressure for a more democratic system, one-party rule was ended in September 1990. 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 socialist PAICV returned to power defeating the MPD in parliamentary elections. In February 2001, José Maria Neves became prime minister, and socialist and former prime minister Pedro Pires was elected president.