Cape Verde
Cape Verde opposition challenges Prime Minister

afrol News, 19 May - The main Cape Verdean opposition party MPD demands the resignation of Prime Minister José Maria Neves the President of Parliament after the country's Constitutional Court ruled the national budget was unconstitutional. 

In December last year, the Cape Verdean government presented its year 2002 budget in Parliament, which included a significant increase in taxation. As the budget was approved against the votes of the opposition, the MPD presented its complaints to the Constitutional Court. The Court last week ruled that three of the budgetary articles were indeed unconstitutional.

Almost the entire opposition, under the leadership of the MPD, protested the combination of the 2002 budget and the fiscal reform attached to it, already in December calling it unconstitutional. 

The government party - the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) - however pushed through with the budget and tax reform, using its parliamentary majority and the aid of the President to have it approved. The opposition immediately went through with its threat to have the Constitutional Court to prove the budget's legality. 

On Thursday, MPD party leader Agostinho Lopes in a press conference held in Praia said that his party now had asked Prime Minister Neves and the President of Parliament, Aristides Lima, to take the consequence of Court's establishment of their unconstitutional acts and step down from their posts. Lopes held those responsible of this mess should pay the political price for their acts. 

Cape Verdean Prime Minister Neves meanwhile indicates a simple wish expressed by Lopes will not lead to his demission. He expects that Lopes and the MPD present a vote of no confidence against his government in Parliament to have the political situation in the country clarified.

Finance Minister Carlos Burgo yesterday assured he would respect the ruling be the Constitutional Court and take immediate action to nullify the three unconstitutional articles from the budget, meaning that taxes would not be increased. Then, the budget will have to be balanced in another manner. 

Burgo also insinuated that PAICV would present a proposal to change the Cape Verdean constitution within short time to avoid similar problems in the future. The opposition was "dedicated to create difficulties for the government," he noted on the parliamentary situation in the country. 

President Pedro Pires reacted in a more positive manner to the Court's decision. Pires held this was proof that all the independent state powers within Cape Verde were properly functioning and checking each other. The President reminded Cape Verdeans this was not the first time the Constitutional Court went against government decisions, "and it will surely not be the last time." Pires is himself a former PAICV Prime Minister and won last year's presidential poll. 

Sources: PAICV, MPD, RDP Àfrica and afrol archives

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