- Both the incumbent President Pedro Pires and opposition leader Carlos Veiga claim they are the best bet for continued stability in Cape Verde as they are campaigning to win the 12 February poll. Meanwhile, the nation's two principal parties have agreed on election procedures and reviewed the 22 January legislative elections.
President Pires, who is running for re-election in the 12 February presidential elections, was on the island of Sal yesterday afternoon, where he participated in a lunch organised by his local campaign commission. Mr Pires told 'A Semana' that he agreed with his ruling PAICV party's strategy of separating the legislative and presidential elections, and reaffirmed his belief that he is the presidential candidate offering "guarantees if political stability".
'A Semana Online' was present at the lunch, where President Pires spoke to his supporters about his reasons for running for re-election and reaffirmed his belief that he is "the candidate of political stability." "The way I see the future of Cape Verde, I believe that this candidacy is in itself a guarantee for the country, as with myself in the presidency there will continue to be governmental stability and political stability in general, and there will also be an effort toward perfecting and consolidating the institutions of a state of law," said Mr Pires.
The candidate explained that in running for re-election, he is taking on the role of "agglutinator" of the will of Cape Verdeans in the affirmation and construction of the "great Cape Verdean nation". "I believe that I can still be useful to Cape Verde, and as long as I am able to be useful to the cause of the nation, I will continue my struggle," the incumbent stated.
Also his challenger, Mr Veiga of the opposition MpD party, is campaigning. Following visits to a number of municipalities on the island of Santiago, culminating in a rally Tuesday night in the capital, Praia, presidential candidate Veiga yesterday travelled to the small island of Brava.
In Brava,the opposition candidate met with his local supporters, continuing with his campaign. Today, he will return to the island of Santiago, where he will campaign in the municipality of Santa Catarina. At the rally on Tuesday, Mr Veiga told the hundreds of people present that as President he would be "a guarantee of stability," despite the fact that he would be supported by the opposition MpD party.
This year's presidential elections in Cape Verde are a repetition of the last polls, where President Pires won with only a few tens of votes. The Cape Verdean President holds little powers and a greater importance was given to the 22 January legislative elections, which were won by the ruling PAICV party.
The legislative elections went without any incidents, as is usual in Cape Verde, although there were some reports of voters being able to cast several votes. This was strongly protested by MpD leader Agostinho Neto, blaming the National Elections Commission (CNE) for not doing its work properly.
Despite the tension created after the legislative elections, the delegates for the two rival presidential candidates yesterday have managed to come to a mutually accepted agreement with the CNE regarding the way in which the presidential elections should be carried out. The elections commission reviewed a series of situations brought to its attention by the staffs of the two presidential candidates regarding the manner in which the upcoming poll should be carried out.
According to sources speaking to 'A Semana Online', the situations reviewed mainly had to do with the functioning of the polling stations, ballots and cases of multiple voter registrations, among other things. "After pondering all of the cases, solutions reached by consensus were found in order to keep people from voting more than once, and to avoid preventing citizens from voting because of problems in the system," says a CNE source.
The same source claims that there is nothing that has taken place in the electoral process than cannot be resolved through normal procedures. "Both candidacies have made proposals aimed at allowing everything to occur without problems. And the most important part of all this is that no one has questioned the holding of the presidential elections on the scheduled day," 12 February.
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