Cape Verde will hold its first direct presidential election and its first multiparty legislative balloting later this year, political leaders in the west African nation said. The announcement came late Friday at the end of a four-day meeting by leaders of the only political party now allowed in the 10-island archipelago, the ruling the African Party for the Indpendence of Cape Verde. Olivio Pires, a party spokesman, told the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, that the presidential election will be held on a non-party basis this year on a date to be announced later. Pires said President Aristides Pereira, who has ruled Cape Verde since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975, will have to step down from his post as the party's general secretary if he chooses to run for re-election. Pires said the legislative election will be held in December after the presidential balloting, Lusa reported from the Cape Verdian capital, Praia. Currently, citizens elect members of the Peoples National Assembly from lists of candidates put forward by the ruling party. The president is then elected by the assembly, the only legislative body. The new political structure was developed with the help of attorneys in Portugal and is modeled after the election plan in Portugal, which also chooses its president on a non-party basis. The reforms further advance Cape Verde's evolution from the single-party, Marxist-inspired system it embraced after independence to a democratic system. The country has gradually opened up its economy to private enterprise and recently introduced legislation that would result in greater freedom for the press. Some criticism of the ruling party is already allowed. Pereira also has won praise from Western governments, human rights groups and aid agencies for his pragmatism and tolerance of political dissent. Cape Verde, 385 miles off the Senegalese coast, is the second of Portugal's former African colonies to implement democratic reforms. Sao Tome e Principe announced last year that competition among political parties will be allowed in upcoming general elections.
