Cape Verde’s African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde, or PAICV, says it has secured an absolute majority in the National Assembly after legislative elections, while defeated MpD leader Ulisses Correia e Silva has resigned from the party leadership.
The supplied DW report says the provisional results gave PAICV 33 of the 72 parliamentary seats, based on 88,966 votes or 46.7 percent. The Movement for Democracy, MpD, won 30 seats with 83,190 votes, or 43.6 percent, while the UCID took two seats. The report says turnout was marked by a record abstention rate of 53.4 percent.
PAICV leader Francisco Carvalho declared victory at the party headquarters in Praia and said the result gave his party a clear mandate to change the way the country is governed. He also pointed to a series of campaign pledges, including free access to public university and healthcare, as evidence of what the party intended to deliver.
The result matters because Cape Verde has been closely contested between the two main parties. A narrow but decisive parliamentary majority gives PAICV more room to govern without the need for a fragile coalition. That in turn helps explain why Carvalho spoke so confidently about having won the parliament outright before all of the final results were in.
Ulisses Correia e Silva, who has served as prime minister since 2016, conceded defeat and said he would step down to allow the MpD to enter a new phase. He also promised the party would remain a responsible opposition force. In political terms, that resignation is nearly as significant as the seat count because it opens an internal transition inside the governing party.
The source does not say whether the result is final or whether any formal recounts remain. It does, however, make clear that the provisional tally is enough for PAICV to claim control of the chamber. The record abstention figure also stands out, suggesting that the election was competitive but did not mobilise a large share of the electorate.
For Cape Verde, the outcome marks a change in political direction after years of MpD leadership. For investors and observers, the immediate question is how quickly PAICV can turn campaign promises into a governing programme and whether the new parliamentary arithmetic will alter the policy stance of the country.
The report also notes that Carvalho acknowledged the limits of what could be changed without constitutional amendments. That is a reminder that even with a majority, a government still faces institutional constraints and the practical challenge of making promises in a small island democracy with limited fiscal room.
What is now certain is the political shift itself: PAICV has the most seats, the MpD leader has resigned and Cape Verde’s next governing phase will be shaped by a newly empowered opposition-turned-ruling party.
The election result is therefore both a numerical and symbolic reset. The seat count gives PAICV a working majority, while the resignation at MpD signals the beginning of a broader recalibration in the country’s two-party contest.
