In São Tomé e Príncipe a legislative election was held on Sunday. The final vote distribution has not yet been announced, but the seat count has been made public.

São Tomé has been experiencing a period of cohabitation since President Fradique de Menezes withdrew the members of his Movimento Democrático das Forças da Mudança-Partido Liberal (MDFM-PL) party from the government in January. This means that the government is a two-party coalition of the Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe/Partido Social Democrata (MLSTP/PSD) and the Partido de Convergência Democrática-Grupa de Reflexão (PCD), with Rafael Branco of the MLSTP as prime minister.

According to the Jornal de São Tomé e Príncipe, the new seat distribution in the legislature is as follows:

Acção Democrática Independente (Independent Democratic Action – ADI), 26 deputies (+14)
MLSTP/PSD, 21 deputies (+1)
PCD, 7 deputies
MDFM-PL, 1 deputy

In 2006 the MDFM-PL/PCD alliance was returned with 23 seats, of which I believe the MDFM-PL had 13 seats. So, the president’s party is the big loser at the election and the opposition ADI is the big winner. However, whether the ADI turns its victory into government seats is another issue. A majority constitutes 28 seats. The ADI is the largest party, but the current coalition will be returned with exactly that amount. The MDFM-PL was created by the president following a split with the ADI. So, in theory, the ADI and MDFM-PL are natural partners. However, they will still not be able to garner a majority. However, party politics is fluid and other alliances are possible.

Full results and short report are available at the IPU site here.