Election boycotts leaves Sao Tome and Principe in tension

Political uncertainty mounted in Sao Tome and Principe on Monday, following legislative elections that were marred by boycotts and an unexpected delay in the announcement of official partial results from Sunday's vote.

According to reports reaching here on Monday from Sao Tome, the head of the National Electoral Commission (CEN), Jos Carlos Barreiros, failed to appear, without explanation, at a morning news conference called to release partial tallies from the vote.

He was not immediately reachable for comment and was reportedly absent from the CEN's headquarters.

Barreiros called the Monday morning news conference to announce partial results late Sunday night, after saying the vote would be repeated next Sunday in 13 precincts where the election had been boycotted over local issues.

The CEN had originally set the release of partial electoral results for Sunday night.

The boycotts, apparently organized to protest the lack of roads, potable water and electricity, affected 13 precincts with about 10 percent of the islands' nearly 80,000-strong electorate, according to the CEN.

Adding to the uncertainty, visiting foreign journalists received a fax purportedly sent from the Attorney General's office Monday, showing opposition supporters of President Fradique de Menezes comfortably ahead of the governing Movement for the Liberation of the Sao Tome and Principe (IMLSTP party with about half of the ballots counted.

According to the fax, whose authenticity could not be immediately confirmed, the Menezes-allied Force for Change Democratic Movement-Democratic Convergence Party (MDFM-PCD) coalition had taken about 36 percent of the vote to nearly 29 percent for the MLSTP and better than 22 percent for the Democratic Independent Action (ADI) party, a force linked to former President Miguel Trovoada.

Meanwhile, the MDFM-PCD campaign director, Delfim Neves, claimed victory, telling a news conference the coalition had come first in the balloting, winning 22 of parliament's 55 seats.

Neves, denying any knowledge of or responsibility for the purported fax from the Attorney General's office, said his claim of victory was based on figures obtained by the coalition from voting stations.

The electoral boycotts Sunday, some involving the blockading of roads and the burning of tires, proceeded throughout election day despite an appeal from the president for voters to express their concerns in a "calm and civilized" way through the ballot box.

Menezes' chief political rival, the leader of the ruling MLSTP party, Guilherme Posser da Costa, convened what he called an " urgent" news conference Sunday to denounce the boycotts as a "sign of panic" from unnamed "adversaries" of his party.

Posser da Costa charged, several of the boycotts had affected traditional MLSTP strongholds.

Source: Xinhua