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afrol.com, 6 March - Former PAICV Prime Minister Pedro Pires was yesterday declared winner of the Cape Verdean presidential elections, winning the poll with a mere 17 votes. The Supreme Court could however still demand a new count in some districts where irregularities were reported by the candidates. With the victory of Mr. Pires, the African Party of the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) now is in control of both the presidency and the parliament. The party, that ruled Cape Verde in a one-party system from 1975 to 1991, also won the January parliamentary elections. The PAICV, which voluntarily introduced the multi-party system in 1991, is considered a moderate leftist party, and has been campaigning on this ground. Pires' rival candidate, Carlos Veiga from the Movement for Democracy (MPD), has been his party's Prime Minister from 1991 to 2000; when he stepped down to prepare his presidential candidature. Veiga's government introduced economic, structural reforms to the islands state, a liberalisation policy strongly influenced by the IMF and World Bank. The results have however proven rather positive, boosting the country's economic growth rate (8% in 1999). Greater inequity due to the liberalisation however seem to have contributed to the loss of the MPD in a country that has been used to left wing policies. Acting President Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro also won his office in the first multi-party elections in 1991, however as an independent candidate. He also won the 1996 elections. Monteiro steps down as a popular man after having served the two terms the Constitution allows him.
The second round proved more dramatic, as the preliminary results showed an advantage of only 533 votes to Pedro Pires and there had been signs of irregularities. Both candidates claimed victory and accused the other of fraud. On 26 February, the National Election Commission (CNE) decided to halt the public counting and prepare for a new, more thorough count, "because any single vote could make the difference," as CNE President Adriano Freire told the press in Praia. Temper between candidates Pires and Veiga was rising as new fraud allegations where known. On 28 February, it was known that a technician working in the Directorate of Assistance to the Electorate Process (DSAPE) had introduced "more than a thousand of votes in favour of Carlos Veiga" via his computer access to the poll results, DSAPE Director Lećo Barreto told the press. Further minor irregularities were discovered. Appeals from the CNE however managed to make the candidates control their attacks on each other and file their complaints to the court. Thus, the election results, first scheduled for 26 February, than for 1 March, were delayed, and the CNE did not publish the official results before yesterday, 5 March, declaring Pedro Pires as the winner. Meanwhile, both candidates had launched appeals with the Supreme Court alleging vote irregularities. A possible Supreme Court ruling might therefore even provoke a repeated in several areas. Carlos Veiga, loosing the poll with 17 votes, today spoke in favour of a Supreme Court alteration of the results. The court still has not made a statement on whether it will investigate the case or approve the results published by the CNE.
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Cape Verde has been distinguished by a model democracy since the peaceful conversion to a multi-party system in 1991. In this context, the 2001 presidential election has been thriller not expected. None of the candidates had gained more than 50% of the vote on the 12 February poll, and Carlos Veiga and Pedro Pires reached 45% and 47% of the vote respectively. Thus, a second round had to be organised.
