IFES Election Guide | Elections: Cape Verde President

Results

Voter
Turnout*

Cast Votes:191,119

Valid Votes:185,191

Invalid Votes:5,928

Jose Maria Pereira Neves95,803

51.70

Carlos Veiga78,474

42.40

Election Results Modified: Jan 07, 2022

At Stake in this Election:        

Government Structure: 

Head of Government: Jose Maria Pereira NEVES*
Assembly: Cape Verde has a unicameral National Assembly (Assembleia Nacional) with 72 seats.

*The President appoints the Prime Minister after receiving nominations from the National Assembly

Electoral System [i]:

The President is elected by an absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
The Prime Minister is nominated by the National Assembly and appointed by the President.
In the National Assembly (Assembleia Nacional) 72 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms**

**There are 16 multi-member constituencies with 2-15 seats each, depending on population. Votes are tabulated using the d’Hondt method.

Last Election: 

The last presidential election was held on October 2nd, 2016 [ii]. Jorge Carlos Fonseca won with 74% of the vote (91,320 votes) and there was a 35% voter turnout.

Main Candidates in this Election [iii]:  

Population and Registered Voters: 

Gender Data: 

Is Cape Verde a signatory to CEDAW: No
Has Cape Verde ratified CEDAW: Yes (ratified December 5th, 1980) [vi]
Gender Quota: Yes, legislated quotas. (Cape Verde’s election law requires parity in political representation through requiring “a minimum representation of 40% of each of the sexes in the candidacy lists for the collegiate bodies of power”) [vii]
Female Leaders in this election: No
Number of Female Legislators: 28 out of 72 [viii]

Human Development Index (HDI) Position: Rank 126 at 0.665 (2020) [ix] 
Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A (as of 2019) [x]