ELECTIONS

Opposition candidate Jorge Carlos Fonseca has won Cape Verde’s presidential elections, beating his ruling party rival, Manuel Inocencio Sousa. Mr Fonseca secured nearly 55% of the vote in run-off elections on Sunday, compared with Mr Sousa’s 45% (BBC).

In his first words as Cape Verde’s president-elect, Jorge Carlos Fonseca promised to abide by his electoral platform, speaking of cooperation with the various different organs of sovereignty, including the executive, but stressed that he would be an “active magistrate,” making use of all of the powers the Constitution reserves for the office of the President of the Republic (A Semana).

The 75 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) observers in Cape Verde for the second round of voting in the country’s presidential elections classified the electoral act as “transparent and free.” On Monday, August 22, the observers saluted all of the participants for the orderly manner in which the entire process unfolded and for what they consider “Cape Verde’s political maturity” (A Semana).

POLITICS

Prime Minister José Maria Neves presented a proposal for the exoneration of Minister of Social Development and Family, Felisberto Vieira, to President Pedro Pires in response to Vieira’s letter of resignation on August 8. The proposal was accepted by the President (A Semana).

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DEFENSE & SECURITY

The United States African Command (AFRICOM) and the Cape Verdean Armed Forces signed a cooperation protocol in Praia worth US$200,000, for the acquisition of equipment for Cape Verde Coastguard patrol ships (Macauhub).

DIASPORA

It is well documented that winning the lottery can cause people to behave strangely. Even by those standards, Candido Oliveira, a 47-year-old unemployed Dorchester man who showed up at Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters yesterday to claim his $32 million MegaMillions jackpot, stands out for what he did not do (Boston Globe).

Leila Lopes, born in Benguela, Angola to Cape Verdean parents, will represent Angola at the Miss Universe pageant in São Paulo, Brazil on September 12 (A Semana).

SANTIAGO

A technical problem in one of the pumps used to supply the larger of the two desalinization units in Praia, which produces 5,000 cubic meters of desalinated water per day, has left the capital city waterless for the second time so far this year. The situation is being aggravated by the fact that the other desalinization unit, which has a 1,200-cubic-meter daily capacity, has not been functioning for several months (A Semana).

ECONOMY

The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services Sotavento (CCISS) prepares a Cape Verdean business mission to the XV International Business Meeting of the Northeast (EINNE), to be held in September in Brazil (Inforpress).

Cape Verde’s Cavibel beverage manufacturer will this month begin exporting beer to the US states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Strela beer exported to the two states, home to a large part of the Cape Verdean community in the United States, will be produced under Cavibel licence in Europe (Macauhub).

AGRI

With the rainfall registered over the past days, farmers on the islands of Fogo and Brava have seen their hopes for a good agricultural year reinforced. On both islands, where there have been no reports of pests so far, corn and bean plants in an advanced stage of development are already to be seen in certain zones (A Semana).

AVIATION

Passengers scheduled to fly from São Vicente to Praia on a TACV Cabo Verde Airlines flight that was delayed due to poor weather ended up forcing their way into the bus ferrying passengers from the airport terminal to the aircraft, forcibly attempting to embark on another flight scheduled for mid-afternoon. National Police had to be called to calm the situation down (A Semana).

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BANKING

The Payment System Report published on the Bank of Cape Verde’s web site indicates that the use and variety of payment methods and tools continues to grow and evolve in the country. The report also reveals that Cape Verdean are increasingly using checks and bank debit cards and that interbank transactions are on the rise as well (A Semana).

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SPLIT SECOND POLL

TOURISM

Portuguese travel agency Solférias has launched a new vacation package promotion valid between now and September 30, with prices beginning at 599 Euros for trips to the island of Boa Vista between the months of October and December (A Semana).

Updated Monday August 22nd

JORGE CARLOS FONSECA PRESIDENT

This time Atlantico Weekly readers predicted it right: with over 54 % of the votes Jorge Carlos Fonseca (MpD) beat PAICV-rival Manuel Inocencio Sousa in the second round of Cape Verde’s presidential elections. After winning three consecutive parliamentary elections the PAICV’s monopoly of power is finally broken. From now on Cape Verde will witness its own “Cohabitation” period of power sharing, between a MpD president and a PAICV government.

JCF, nicknamed Zona,  won convincingly. Zona took all islands, except Fogo. With the more than average result of 57 % he also got a nice result in Santiago Sul constituency, the political centre of the country around the capital, Praia.  Inocencio however did well in the diaspora, taking the African and Americas constituencies, with Zona winning Europe, like in the first round.

It appears that former candidate Aristides Lima supporters have voted largely for JCF, though research will have to prove this. Jorge Carlos Fonseca is the fourth president of Cape Verde.

All results, also per island, can now be found here.

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NEW ENGLAND

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling obliging the city of Cambridge to pay some US$ 4.5 million to Cape Verdean Malvina Monteiro, the former director of the Review and Advisory Board of the city’s police force (A Semana).

Also, the state of Massachusetts says a Boston bar refused to allow black and Hispanic friends to enter to celebrate a white friend’s birthday. The attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against Peggy O’Neil’s Bar and Grille in Dorchester, a neighborhood once mostly white that has become increasingly diverse over the years (UPI).

SANTIAGO

The various cases of vandalism registered in Praia in recent weeks, including the destruction of ornaments and decorations in the city’s squares and streets and the theft of traffic signs in various parts of the city, have the Praia municipal chamber concerned. Video surveillance systems for the most problematic zones are a part of the solution found by city hall, which plans to begin by placing surveillance cameras on 5 de Julho Street in the capital’s central Plateau district (A Semana).

SANTO ANTAO

Minister of Culture Mário Lúcio Sousa announced that Porto Novo, on the island of Santo Antão, will be the site of a future religious festivities museum. Speaking during a meeting with members of the cultural and artistic community on the island, Sousa also announced that the Santo Antão will have a museum dedicated to grogue, Cape Verde’s trademark sugarcane brandy (A Semana).

The Curraletes music festival in Porto Novo, on the island of Santo Antão, will only take place on August 26 and 27. This is the festival’s second postponement as a result of this year’s presidential elections (A Semana).

SAO VICENTE

Alcione’s warm voice marked the second day of the Baía das Gatas music festival. The Brazilian singer began her show with “Mamãe Velha,” a song she had written in order to join music to a poem by Amílcar Cabral the first time she performed in Cape Verde 25 years ago. Another of the highlights of last night’s festival was a duet between Alcione and São Vicente-based artist Diva Barros (A Semana).

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Render of the Santo Antonio residential project for Achada de Santo Antonio, in Praia, consisting of 30 appartments in two blocks (Editur).

ECONOMY

Cape Verde’s current account deficit increased by 23 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011 reaching 7.666 billion Cape Verdean escudos (US$97 million), the Bank of Cape Verde said (Macauhub).

The 15th edition of the Cape Verde International Fair (FIC), due to take place from 16 to 20 November in the city of Mindelo, will have Brazil as its guest country and will be entitled, “15 years promoting business in Cape Verde” (Macauhub).

AGRI

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Cape Verde has provided funding of 300,000 euros for a project for urgent assistance with controlling epizootic African swine fever on the archipelago, the FAO said (Macauhub).

Elsewhere in the tropics, the Cape Verde hurricane season has arrived, and meteorologists are watching the Atlantic Ocean closely to see what disturbances may develop into tropical storms or hurricanes. The Cape Verde hurricane season got its name because of the climatologically favored time of year when organized tropical waves move off the African coast and across the Cape Verde Islands in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean (PC).

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CULTURE

An initiative is circulating on Facebook calling on the Ministry of Culture to pay homage to Cape Verde’s barefoot diva, Cesária Évora. The intention is to raise authorities’ awareness regarding the need to pay reverence to one of the great names in Cape Verdean culture and the main ambassador of the country’s music in the rest of the world (A Semana).

The preparations for the 2nd Edition of the Cabo Verde International Film Festival (CVIFF) are well underway. The festival will take place on Sal Island. With the intension to jump-start the 2^nd Edition of the Film Festival, the organization aims to promote a “Pre-Festival Kickoff Show” scheduled for 12 October (CVIFF).

SPLIT SECOND POLL

ELECTIONS

The presidential candidates of the Movement for Democracy (MPD), Jorge Carlos Fonseca, and the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), Manuel Inocencio Sousa, will contest in the second round of the election in Cape Verde on 21 August (Afrique en Ligne).

Aristides Lima acknowledged defeat in the first round of presidential elections and congratulated the two candidates who will go on to the runoff election. He did not, however, make any declaration of support for either of the two candidates (A Semana).

“Attempts at vote-buying in the capital city and on São Vicente” and “intimidation and pressure” were some of the “shortcomings” registered by international observers from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who accompanied the first round of Cape Verde’s presidential elections on Sunday, August 7 (A Semana).

The leader of the MpD, Carlos Veiga, says that his party has proof, including photographs, that will be annexed to a formal complaint that is being presented regarding alleged vote-buying during the days leading up to Sunday’s presidential election. Veiga accused “cabinet ministers” and “faces known to all” of this illegality, and stressed that he has been making the same accusations since 2001 (A Semana).

Minister of Social Development and Family Felisberto Vieira submitted his resignation, justifying the decision in the letter sent to the Prime Minister’s office with “personal and political reasons.” Former Praia mayor Felisberto Vieira was one of the main supporters of the presidential candidacy undertaken by Aristides Lima, who came in third place in yesterday’s vote (A Semana).

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CULTURE

Minister of Culture Mário Lúcio Sousa unveiled the first House of Culture in a new nationwide network. Praia, Tarrafal and Santa Catarina are the municipalities included in this first phase of the initiative (A Semana).

FOGO

The Fogo delegation of the Ministry of Rural Development has begun the reforestation campaign in Monte Velha, planting the first trees and other plants in the areas consumed by a forest fire last April in the forest perimeter (A Semana).

Residents of the agricultural zones of the island of Fogo have begun weeding activities, and crops are at a positive stage of development, according to information provided to A Semana Online by Agriculture Department services on the island.

The Natural Park of Fogo (PNF) aims at the creation of a “network of friends of the park” for the purpose of supporting the preservation and management of natural resources which it houses, announced its coordinator, Alexandre Rodrigues (AW).

ECONOMY

Some 70% of Cape Verdean university graduates manage to enter the job market, with 65% of them finding employment in their respective areas of study, according to data from the Institute of Employment and Professional Training, which affirms that entrepreneurship is beginning, albeit timidly, to gain ground, with 10.5% of graduates creating their own jobs (A Semana).

All fuels – kerosene, gasoline, diesel and fuel oil – and butane gas are less expensive as of Tuesday, August 9. The Economic Regulation Agency (ARE) justifies the reduction in prices with the evolution in the average price of fuel on the international market over the past several months (A Semana).

AGRI

The National Statistics Institute (INE) of Cape Verde plans in 2011 to work on a strategy to produce agricultural statistics in Cape Verde the president of INE announced (Macauhub).

AVIATION

Cape Verde, with more than 16,600 passengers a year, is one of the markets of origin / destination of flights at Lisbon Airport, that grew the fastest in the first half of 2011 (Inforpress).

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FAST FERRY

The management of Cape Verde Fast Ferry has confirmed that the second fast ferry, named Liberdadi, has been completed at Damen Shipyard in Singapore and is due to arrive in Cape Verde by mid October 2011. Liberdadi will serve the northern islands, such as Sal, Sao Nicolau, Sao Vicente and Santo Antao (AW).

TOURISM

TUI, the German tourism company and operator of world vacation packages, will increase its supply of matches to Cape Verde in the winter of 2011/12 (Inforpress).

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

UPDATED MONDAY AUGUST 8TH

ELECTIONS

The Sunday August 7th presidential elections in Cape Verde did not result in a full winner, leaving the final decision to Cape Verde’s voters in a second round on August 21st. MpD candidate Jorge Carlos Fonseca came out first however with 37,4 % after counting 87,9 % of votes cast, both inside the country and in the diaspora.  PAICV candidate Manuel Inocencio Sousa came second at 33,3 %, with Arisitides Lima trailing at 25,9 %.

The dream is clearly over for Arisitides Lima and his supporters. Lima only managed good results on his home island Boavista and among Capeverdean voters in the U.S. It remains to be seen in the coming days how things between him and his onetime party PAICV will develop. Will he return to his lifelong party and will the PAICV close ranks? Will he call upon his voters to support Inocencio in the next round? Will his voters follow him? Certainly not all.

The final round will now be between Fonseca and Inocencio. Fonseca came out first on Santo Antao, Sao Nicolau, Maio, Sal, Brava, while Inocencio only came out first on Fogo and Sao Vicente. The picture is still unclear on Santiago. Traditionally the PAICV candidate won among Capeverdean voters in Africa (mainly Angola), while Fonseca was on top in Europe.

Capeverdean media reported dramatic low turnout yesterday, but the facts speak for themselves. Global (Cape Verde and diaspora) turnout was indeed low at 52,1  and lower than in 2006 when 53,1 % of all registered voters turned up. But that low turnout was largely caused by the diaspora, where only 27,5% turned up. Inside the country the picture is slightly better: 55 % turnout, though down from 58,9 % in 2006.

Compared to some other countries that figure may seem low though it is not bad. Almost 84 % of French voters turned up in the presidential elections in 2007, while in the U.S. 61% contested the Obama election. In Portugal however, a mere 47% showed up in the 2011 presidential elections.

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POLITICS

Insecurity, unemployment and energy and water shortages were the main highlights of the speech given by the leader of opposition party MpD during the debate on the State of the Nation in parliament. Carlos Veiga did not question the importance of the infrastructures the government has built or the “many words that bring much needed comfort to Cape Verdeans,” but challenged the Prime Minister to change course (A Semana).

Aristides Pereira, independent Cape Verde’s first president, was flown to Portugal for emergency treatment after he fell in his Praia home. Pereira is believed to have fractured his femur (A Semana).

The front running candidate to the presidential election in Cape Verde, Aristides Lima, said that he will focus his external policy on to the economic relations with Angola, if he wins Sunday polls (Angop).

INTERNATIONAL

Cape Verde and Brazil will further develop the relations of cooperation, particularly in the areas of housing, civil aviation, sports adapted for people with disabilities and digital certification (Inforpress).

Cape Verde signed a number of agreements with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) worth over US$3 million (Macauhub).

CULTURE

Cabo Verde: antologia de poesia contemporânea (Cape Verde: an anthology of contemporary poetry), organized by Ricardo Riso, is now on the market, beinging together works by 13 Cape Verdean poets and illustrations by visual artists Mito Elias and Abraão Vicente (A Semana).

SANTIAGO

Praia’s Agostinho Neto Hospital unveiled Cape Verde’s first maternal milk bank, aimed at providing assistance to mothers who are unable to suckle their newborn babies. The initiative was supported by the Brazilian government, which provided the equipment for the facility and trained the professional who will work there (A Semana).

ECONOMY

Cape Verde received 111 million US dollars in direct foreign investment in 2010, 8 million less than in the previous year. The information is included in the 2011 World Investment Report from the United Nations Agency for Commerce, Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (A Semana).

Economist and consultant Franz Tavares will replace Florentino Cardoso at the Business Development and Innovation Agency (ADEI) in August. Former Finance Ministry employee Francisco Fortes and the Cape Verde Stock Exchange’s José Carlos Tavares complete the trio that will lead the ADEI (A Semana).

One hundred and one young would-be entrepreneurs started training in Praia through a “Group of entrepreneurship”, sponsored by the Agency for Business Development and Innovation (ADEI) (Inforpress).

For the years 2007-2009, Cape Verde’s trade-to-GDP ratio was 114.2. The country exported US$35 million in merchandise while it imported US$709 million in merchandise, making it a net importer of merchandise. For commercial services, Cape Verde exported US$471 million while importing US$304 million, making it a net exporter of commercial services. Check out all figures at Afribiz.

SPLIT SECOND POLLS

AGRI

The Ministry of Rural Development and Marine Resources has some 137,000 forest and fruit plants ready and waiting for the first rains of the season to be planted, according to the Directorate General of Agriculture, Forestry and Farming (A Semana).

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CONSTRUCTION

The Chamber of Commerce Cape Verde Portugal (CCPCV) is preparing a business mission to Cape Verde, in order to participate in the International Fair of Construction and Housing (FICH), to be held in October, in Praia (Inforpress).

TOURISM

Labor union Sicotur has called on the hotels Djad’Sal and Sab Sab (popularly known as Aeroflot), both on the island of Sal, to sell off their assets so that their employees can receive the wages owed to them and their rightful compensation for the termination of their work contracts. The union is expected to present the request to the Sal district court within the next month (A Semana).

Cape Verde was the third most-purchased vacation destination on the Spanish market in the month of July, revealed LetsBonus, a pioneering company in the realm of collective purchases in Europe (A Semana).