Africa-Press – Cape verde. After learning the election results that determined the victory of the candidate of the Movement for Democracy (MpD), Augusto Neves, who obtained a relative majority with 11,238 votes (41.3%), according to provisional data, the candidate of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), António Duarte, congratulated the winner.
“I hope he has an excellent mandate and that he works hard for the prosperity of all”, he stressed.
However, according to the same source, the PAICV, which obtained 7,192 votes (26.4%) can consider that it had a “meritorious trajectory”, despite having worked “hard” to win the elections.
“The second political force gives us great joy, it is a great pleasure to have managed to achieve this, unfortunately the abstention rate, which reached 50.4%, was the big winner in these elections”, considered António Duarte.
António Monteiro, the candidate for the Independent and Democratic Union of Cape Verde (UCID), said that the election results in São Vicente of 6,688 votes (24.6%) “do not reflect even remotely” the work they did.
Although he acknowledged that in politics the will of the people must be respected, the UCID candidate stated that in order to defend the island of São Vicente he will see “whether the mayor is actually directly elected or not, so the Constitutional Court will have to settle this conflict.”
This is because, he stressed, if they want to “save São Vicente they will have to put the MpD in the opposition”.
“More than 50% of voters decided not to vote and they think that’s fine. If they think that’s fine, then I’m fine with that too. Now, the problem is the social cost that we will pay from now on. The social cost that this island will have to pay, because combining drug trafficking with politics is the worst mistake we can make and we have seen this”, he accused.
António Monteiro also once again denounced the attempted intimidation by the MpD candidate in the Salamansa area and the purchase of identity cards in several areas of São Vicente.
“The MpD, feeling that it would not win the council in Praia, decided that it should invest millions of escudos, which is why I am appealing to the Bank of Cape Verde (BCV) to investigate the amount of money that was raised in the last few days and from there we will draw all the conclusions”, stressed the same source, also asking the Judiciary and National Police to clarify what happened in Salamansa and the international community to “pay more attention” to what is happening in Cape Verde.
Regarding the management of the council, António Monteiro assured that he will take up his position as a councillor despite foreseeing that he will be accused by his opponents of being a mayor and national deputy.
“It will be a very difficult council to manage because the current president, with his insults, was so low, so serious, so violent that you don’t want to put your face to the man and say good morning to him,” he said.
The candidate for the Independent Movement Socent Katem Parada, Nelson Lopes, who received 539 votes (2%), said that he is aware that the objective of his candidacy was to help the island of São Vicente.
Nelson Lopes said that this is putting an end to his short political career because he realized that he is better as a businessman and therefore has to continue in the area where he is best.
The leader of the Autonomous Movement of São Vicente (MA), Carlos Araújo, who received 1.9% (511 votes), admitted that the results met his expectations, since he wanted to show the population a “better path” for the island of São Vicente.
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