Libreville – The top two candidates in Sao Tome and Principe’s presidential race were headed for a showdown after they qualified on Monday to contest a second-round runoff, according to official provisional results.
Carlos Vila Nova of the main opposition Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party led with 39.47% of the vote, state news agency STP-Press reported.
His opponent on August 8 will be Guilherme Posser da Costa of the centre-left Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe (MLSTP) party, who scored 20.75%. His party leads the ruling coalition.
A record 19 candidates were in the running for the presidency in the poor former Portuguese colony of some 210 000 inhabitants located in the Gulf of Guinea.
Incumbent Evaristo Carvalho, president since 2016, decided not to stand again.
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The candidate who arrived in third place, Delfim Neves, alleged “massive electoral fraud”.
On Sunday, the National Electoral Commission said voting had proceeded “normally”.
As in Portugal, the former colonial power until 1975, the president of the republic may arbitrate disputes but does not govern.
The archipelago opened up to a multiparty system in 1991 after 15 years of Marxist single-party rule, following a pattern seen in other former Portuguese colonies.
Sao Tome exports cocoa and coffee and also lives on subsistence farming, fishing and tourism, but it is 90 percent dependent on international aid.
According to the CIA World Factbook, a 2017 estimate found that around two in three people live below the poverty line.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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