São Tomé: MLSTP promises government to include people outside the party

“ A from tomorrow, after victory, the first contact will be with the President of the Republic. After (...) defining the strategy of greater cohesion and integration of everyone for the advancement of the country, I will also engage with all the organs of sovereignty, religious confessions, civil society, diaspora, in order to set up a government that is not just from MLSTP elements, i.e. from MLSDP militants”, Américo Barros said.

The leader of the largest opposition party, who hasn't beaten a legislature in 24 years, justified: “Because our motto is all count and no one is left out. Hence, where there are competences, be it in civil society, be it in other political parties and in the diaspora, we must unite for the good of São Tomé and Príncipe”.

“The affection we receive from our people... we almost have the absolute certainty that we will be able from tonight,” he said, convinced, after voting in one of the voting assemblies located at the Higher Institute of Education and Communication of the University of São Tomé and Príncipe.

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 146 thousand voters, an increase of almost 4,000 compared to the presidential elections of 19 July, when Carlos Vila Nova was re-elected, at the first round.