ELECTIONS
“Carlos Veiga 2011” is the official site for the MpD leader’s 2011 legislative elections campaign, an interactive page featuring all of the candidate’s events. The site also reveals more about Carlos Veiga as a person, his campaign platform and highlights of what the MpD did in the 1990s when it controlled Cape Verde’s government (A Semana).
The updating of the list of registered voters in the country is proceeding, in general, at a relatively slow pace. As of August 20, only some 3,000 of the 7,285 citizens who will turn 18 by December 31 had registered to vote in the country’s main urban centers – Praia, Mindelo, São Filipe, Assomada and Sal (A Semana).
Atlantico Weekly readers overwhelmingly think the incumbent PAICV government will win the Cape Verde national elections of 2011 with up to 65% of votes cast in the last two weeks. The oppostion MpD trails with 29%, with rightwing UCID receiving just 6%.
POLITICS
Law nº 77/VII/2010, which officially makes cities out of all municipal seats in Cape Verde, went into effect September 2. As a result, the country gets 18 new cities, in addition to Porto Novo, Mindelo, Praia, Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Assomada and São Filipe, which already enjoyed city status (A Semana).
LAW ENFORCEMENT
A 23-year-old Guinea Bissauan woman was arrested as she tried to embark on a flight to Cape Verde transporting some five kilograms of cocaine. Federal police agents at Pinto Martins International Airport in Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceará, made the arrest on Monday, August 30 (A Semana).
In the early hours of 27 August HMS Gloucester of the British Royal Navy, with an embarked Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDet) from Cape Verde, boarded a suspect yacht believed to be carrying cocaine in the mid-Atlantic. The vessel ‘TORTUGA’, registered in Florida, was taken to Cape Verde where authorities discovered cocaine, with a UK street value of at least four million pounds sterling, hidden within the rudder (MOD).
BOA VISTA & SAL
Captivated by Cape Verde. All adrift in the tiny archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic. Thus reads the titel of a nice article in the Daily Mail.
SANTIAGO
A power outage again has affected most of the city of Praia. Executive administrator of water and electricity utility Electra, Rui Spencer Lopes dos Santos, says that scheduled energy cuts intended to facilitate maintenance and a short-circuit in Palmarejo are the reasons behind the extended blackout (A Semana).
SANTO ANTAO
The second edition of the Tour de Santo Antão bicycle race started in the city of Porto Novo. The race, sponsored by the Santo Antão Cycling Association (ACSA) and the Melo Driving School, will feature six legs (A Semana).
SAO VICENTE
Garlic and onions are practically nowhere to be found – or bought – on the island of São Vicente, with local residents forced to trek all over the city of Mindelo to make a purchase (A Semana).
