Sao Tome and Principe President Vila Nova wins second term, preliminary results show

SAO TOME, July 20 - Sao Tome and Principe President Carlos Vila Nova has won a second five-year term, according to preliminary results from the election commission announced on Monday.

Vila Nova, a former public works and infrastructure minister, won Sunday's election with more than 55% of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff, the commission said during a press conference.

His top challenger, Nito Abreu, received more than 41% of the vote.

Vila Nova came to power in 2021 with the backing of the Independent Democratic Action party (ADI), which holds a majority of seats in the National Assembly.

But last year Vila Nova dismissed Patrice Trovoada as prime minister, prompting a split with the ADI that left him running as an independent on Sunday against three other candidates.

Abreu had vowed to focus on creating jobs for youth and stemming what he describes as an exodus of young people from the country, which is made up of two main islands and has a population of around 240,000.

A former Portuguese colony situated off the western coast of Africa, Sao Tome and Principe has had a history of free and peaceful elections since the adoption of multiparty politics in 1990.

The country produces cocoa, and was once seen as a potential oil producer, though it has not yielded major finds.

In 2022, the government announced it had thwarted a coup attempt, the first in nearly two decades, involving at least one member of a South African apartheid-era militia known as the Buffalo Battalion. REUTERS