SÃO TOMÉ and PRÍNCIPE in 2011: AGAIN WAITING for BETTER TIMES, with a NEW OLD PRESIDENT Gerhard Seibert IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin: 2011 Review | 39
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SEPTEMBER | 1 IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin 2011 REVIEW 39 SÃO TOMÉ AND PRÍNCIPE IN 2011: AGAIN WAITING FOR BETTER TIMES, WITH A NEW OLD PRESIDENT Gerhard Seibert IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin: 2011 Review | 39 São Tomé and Príncipe in 2011: Again Waiting for Better Times, With a New Old President GERHARD SEIBERT CEA-IUL (Center of African Studies), ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal After 20 lean years, Manuel Pinto da Costa, the country’s er two attempts to return to the presidency. In the presi- first President after independence (1975-1991), returned dential elections of 1996, he lost to incumbent Miguel to office in early August. He owed his victory to the ab- Trovoada by a small margin in the second round, and in sence of a charismatic rival candidate and a traditional 2001 Fradique de Menezes, at the time candidate of the electoral preference to have a Prime Minister and Presi- ADI selected by Trovoada, beat him in the first round. Pin- dent from different parties. In the oil sector new hopes to da Costa was leader of the MLSTP/PSD from 1998 until have been set on Joint Development Zone (JDZ) Block 1, 2005 when he resigned from active politics. while exploration drillings in JDZ Blocks 2, 3 and 4 and During these years few in São Tomé and Príncipe doubt- the first licensing round of the Exclusive Economic Zone ed that the most suitable candidate for the succession of (EEZ) provided disappointing results. The concession of President Menezes, barred by law from a third term was the port and airport to Sonangol reinforced the archipel- Francisco da Silva, a popular member of the Democratic ago’s dependence on Angola. So far the Trovoada govern- Convergence Party (PCD) and widely respected president ment’s efforts to secure financing from Arab Sovereign of the National Assembly (2006-2010). However, when he Wealth Funds for the construction of a deep-sea port by a died in April 2010 after a long struggle with cancer, the French consortium have failed. Problems around foreign question about Menezes’s succession was open again. investments in ecotourism in Príncipe provoked tensions Consequently, Pinto da Costa prepared the ground for between the island’s Regional Government and the Tro- a comeback. Given his advanced age, the 2011 elections voada government. were his last chance to return to the presidency. In April outgoing President Menezes fixed the date for the Pinto da Costa elected President election date on 17 July. In the following months the Na- On 7 August 74 year old Manuel Pinto da Costa won the tional Electoral Commission (CEN) registered 13.842 new presidential runoff and became his country’s third dem- voters increasing the total number of voters to 92.638. ocratically elected President succeeding Fradique de At first, only three of 14 candidates were endorsed by Menezes (2001-2011) and Miguel Trovoada (1991-2001). political parties, while the others were all independent Pinto da Costa, who ran as independent candidate, de- competitors. In April the National Council of the major feated Evaristo Carvalho, president of the National As- opposition party MLSTP/PSD nominated 45 year old sembly and candidate of the ruling Independent Demo- Aurélio Martins as the party’s presidential candidate. cratic Action (ADI), with 53% against 47% of the votes. Martins, a wealthy businessman, had been elected as the Pinto da Costa was his country’s first President during MLSTP/PSD’s new party president with 73% of the votes the authoritarian one-party rule (1975-1991) and leader in January 2011. However, his nomination was fiercely of Liberation Movement of São Tomé and Príncipe (ML- contested by two other aspirants for the party nomination, STP) from 1972 to 1990. During the democratization Maria das Neves (52), a former Prime Minister, and Elsa process, when the former socialist MLSTP was labeled Pinto (45), a former Defense Minister, both claiming Social Democratic Party (PSD), he resigned from the that Martins’s nomination had been irregular. When leadership to stand as a candidate in the first free presi- their claims were rejected by the MLSTP/PSD’s political dential elections scheduled for March 1991. However, he commission, both ladies decided to run as independent bowed out of the race when he realized that he would candidates for the presidency. lose against the then popular Miguel Trovoada, who had One month later, the ADI nominated Evaristo de Carv- returned from political exile and was supported by the alho (69), president of the National Assembly and the entire opposition. Thereafter Pinto da Costa failed anoth- party’s vice-president, as its presidential candidate. Ini- IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin: 2011 Review | 40 tially Carvalho, known for his close ties with the Trovoada chance to obtain a considerable number of votes let alone family, did not seem to have any intention to run for the to win the elections. The no-chance candidates were Gil- presidency, but he immediately accepted Patrice Tro- berto Gil Umbelina (61, a musician), Liberato Moniz (49, vada’s choice. a Lisbon-based architect), Jorge Coelho (53, an econo- The PCD, the third largest party, nominated Delfim Neves mist who lived several years in the US), Francisco Rita (46), their vice-president and former Minister of Public (65, a parliamentarian for the PCD), Manuel Deus Lima Works, as presidential candidate. Neves, a successful (52, member of the MDFM and ambassador in Libreville), businessman, had been leader of Fradique de Menezes’s Carlos Espírito Santo ‘Bené’ (59, also a member of the election campaign in both 2001 and 2006. During a meet- MDFM), and Helder Barros (59, a former Minister of Edu- ing the Democratic Movement Force of Change (MDFM), cation for the ADI). A candidate who at least could claim the party created in 2001 by followers of President Mene- to have played important roles in the country’s recent po- zes, decided to support Delfim Neves’s candidature, but litical past was the lawyer Filinto Costa Alegre (59). As a Menezes did not himself publicly back his former cam- young student he was one of the leaders of the country’s paign leader. Besides Maria das struggle for independence in 1974- Neves and Elsa Pinto, another 1975, and in 1990 he was a co- seven contenders presented In August 2011, Manuel founder of the Grupo de Reflexão, themselves as independent can- the country’s first opposition group didates. The most prominent was Pinto da Costa won the that in the same year was trans- Manuel Pinto da Costa who had formed into the PCD. not shown up to support his party presidential runoff and On 29 June Espírito Santo de- in the 2010 legislative elections became his country’s clared his withdrawal since his in an effort to construct his im- party MDFM did not support his age as an independent candidate. third democratically candidacy. The next day the Con- However, in late May he officially stitutional Court narrowed the announced he would run for the elected President. The number of candidates by excluding presidency. Rita, Umbelina, Moniz and Delfim Pinto da Costa, who years ago result was a defeat Neves from the elections because assumed political responsibility they had dual nationality and had for the mismanagement and the for Patrice Trovoada not revoked their second national- economic collapse of his country who, as were his ity when they filed. When the offi- during the repressive socialist cial election campaign started on one-party rule, claimed that he predecessors, was 2 July, only nine candidates were felt an obligation and duty to the admitted. However, five days later people and could not passively condemned to cohabit the Constitutional Court readmit- watch the country break down. ted Delfim Neves, who had filed an He promised to promote national with a president from appeal against his exclusion. reconciliation, guarantee political In 2006 only three contenders ran stability and combat corruption. another political party. for the highest office: the incum- Political stability had become a bent Menezes, supported by MDFM campaign issue, because since 1991 sixteen different and PCD, Patrice Trovoada, backed by ADI and MLSTP/ governments have run the country. Often, political insta- PSD, and one independent candidate. Therefore the bility had been provoked by conflicts between the Prime country’s electoral law alone that allows every citizen Minister and the President. above age 35 without dual nationality to run for the presi- Despite his two electoral defeats in 1996 and 2001, this dency could not be blamed for the excessive number of time Pinto da Costa was considered a favorite. Unlike candidates without a chance. Local observers suspected before he now lacked a strong charismatic rival and, that some independent candidates intended to offer their equally important, the many failures during the demo- support for the two candidates in the run-off in exchange cratic regime and the long time lag since his departure for money. Besides, they blamed a certain trivialization of from the presidency had pushed into the background the the office of head of state that had promoted the idea that economic debacle and political oppression during his any ordinary citizen was capable of becoming President. autocracy. Besides, more than 20 years after the end of During the official fifteen day election campaign all can- socialist one-party rule, people were aware that Pinto da didates piously promised to safeguard political stability Costa would be a President in a political regime with far and combat corruption and poverty in the archipelago. less executive powers. Prime Minister Trovoada claimed that only Carvalho Many of the other independent contenders lacked po- could guarantee political stability and repeatedly recalled litical profile and popularity and had not the slightest Pinto da Costa’s autocratic rule during the one-party re- IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin: 2011 Review | 41 gime.