Voters in Cape Verde head to the polls on Sunday to choose a president, with incumbent José Maria Neves seeking a second term against five challengers in a campaign dominated by emigration and the lack of jobs for young people.
Neves, who was prime minister for 15 years before becoming president in 2021, is tipped by analysts to perform best of the six candidates. His main challenger is Joana Rosa, a former justice minister and the first woman to run for president in the West African island nation. Rosa represents the Movement for Democracy party, which governed for 10 years before losing May’s legislative elections.
The archipelago sits more than 600 kilometres west of mainland Africa and is home to only around 500,000 people. More Cape Verdeans live overseas, mainly in the United States and Portugal, than on the islands themselves, and the country has lost many of its young people to jobs abroad.
Neves has promised to organise a youth summit during a second term. Rosa has said the government should make it possible for young people to “build their futures here at home and prevent the continued exodus of young Cape Verdeans abroad”.
Neves belongs to the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde, the country’s oldest political party, which won 37 of the 72 seats in the legislative elections in May, allowing Francisco Carvalho to become prime minister. Cape Verde operates under a hybrid parliamentary-presidential model, in which the president holds veto authority and a mediating role.
The country, a tourism destination, has been in the headlines this year after its men’s football team reached the World Cup knockout stage and after a cruise ship off its coast was struck by hantavirus.
Polls open at 8 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. (1900 GMT). Official provisional results are expected in two or three days. If no candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top two will contest a runoff on 29 November.
Reporting on the campaign so far rests largely on wire coverage; official results are not expected for two or three days.
Sources: Reuters — https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/cape-verde-votes-president-with-emigration-focus-2026-11-15/
