Movement for Democracy (Cape Verde)

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Cape Verde

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Cape Verde

President Pedro Pires Prime Minister José Maria Neves National Assembly Political parties PAICV - MpD - UCID Elections Foreign relations Cape Verde and the European Union

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The Movimento para a Democracia (Portuguese: Movement for Democracy) is a more or less liberal party in Cape Verde. It was in power between 1991 and 2001.

The MpD is a right-of-center party, favoring free trade, an open economic policy, and greater cooperation with international organizations such as the WTO and ECOWAS.

While the MpD enjoys its greatest support in the Barlavento islands, it has earned growing support in the secondary cities of the Sotavento group, such as Mosteiros, Calheta, Assomada and Tarrafal. The Roman Catholic Church in Cape Verde is said to prefer the MpD over the ruling PAICV.

The MpD's policies, most which are perceived by some as being damaging to local traditional agriculture, have prevented it from gaining a strong following in the agrarian municipalities such as Santa Cruz, São Filipe and São Miguel.

In presidential elections held on 11 and 25 February 2001, Carlos Alberto Wahnon de Carvalho Veiga, who won 45.83% of the vote in the first round, was narrowly defeated by PAICV candidate Pedro Pires in the run-off by a margin of only 12 votes.

In the last legislative election, held on 22 January 2006, the party won 44.02% of the popular vote and 29 out of 72 seats in the National Assembly.

In the latest presidential election held on 12 February 2006, Carlos Veiga was again defeated by Pedro Pires, by a margin of 49.02% to 50.98%.

[edit] See also

• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy

[edit] External link

• Official web site