The first round of the presidential election in Cape Verde was held on Sunday.

The Agência Lusa/Expresso das Ilhas is reporting the following result with virtually all votes counted:

Jorge Carlos Fonseca (Movimento para a Democracia/Movement for democracy, MPD), 37.4%
Manuel Inocêncio Sousa (Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde/African Party of Independence of Cape Verde, PAICV), 33.3%
Aristides Lima (Independent – ex-PAICV), 25.9%
Joaquim Jaime Monteiro (Independent), 2.1%

The CNE is reporting that the abstention rate was 47.2%, slightly up from the 2006 figure.

So, the second round on 21 August will pit the representatives of the country’s two main political parties against each other once again.

The outgoing president was from the PAICV. The current PM is from the PAICV. However, the second round could be close. In 2006, the MPD lost by less than 1 per cent.