Voting assemblies open without great affluence in São Tomé and Príncipe

Psome people took part in voting in the Basic School D. Maria de Jesus and the Higher Institute of Education and Communication of the University of São Tomé, where many of the voting assemblies are installed in the capital, found Lusa on site.

More than 146,000 San-Tomese are today called upon to choose deputies and mayors, in an election where the usual calls for massive participation have multiplied, but this time in a context in which the general elections take place after the record abstention in the President of July.

On the last day of the election campaign, the President of the Republic, Carlos Vila Nova, appealed to the vote and to the parties to respect the will of the people, stating that “abstention trivializes” and urging the population to “run massively to the polls”.

The same did the president of the National Electoral Commission (CEN) Santomense, Jeudiger do Nascimento, remembering that “the vote of each Santomense counts to define the future of the country”.

The municipal and regional elections of 27 September in São Tomé and Príncipe run for four parliamentary parties: Independent Democratic Action (ADI); Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP); Coalition Independent Citizens' Movement/Party of National Unity (MCI-PUN); and Movement Enough.

Three other parties without parliamentary seats vote: the Democratic Convergence Party (DCP), the Democratic Movement Force of Change (MDFM) and the newly created Political Movement Our Earth.

For the legislatures are in dispute 55 seats of the National Assembly and are registered more than four thousand voters in relation to the presidential elections of 19 July, when Carlos Vila Nova was re-elected, at the first round, then there is an abstention of 58.81%.

In addition to observers from the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) there are those of the European Union (EU) and the European Parliament, the African Union, the G7+ countries, the Economic Community of Central African States (EECAC) and the Network of Jurisdictional and Administrative Bodies of Portuguese-speaking Countries (ROJAE-CPLP).

Former Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea Vicente Ehate Tomi heads the CPLP observation mission, which is formed by Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.

The EU’s election observation mission is again headed by Portuguese MEP Sérgio Humberto, while the EP delegation – a novelty in relation to the previous electoral act – is led by Ana Catarina Mendes and is also a member of the MEP Catarina Martins.