Ulisses Correia e Silva, Cape Verde’s prime minister and president of the ruling Movement for Democracy (MpD), has argued that voter registration in the country should be automatic, considering the current system unsatisfactory.
“We already had it in parliament and we continue to insist” on the proposal for “unofficial registration” — that is, automatic registration using national identity card data or other documents, he said. “Registration, under the conditions we have in the electoral code, always creates dissatisfaction,” he added, comparing it to “chasing people to register” when it is “a right, but also a duty of political citizenship.”
Under the current system, voters must go through registration commissions — one per municipality — to register or update their voting address. “This means that in various situations, people end up not registering,” he said.
Correia e Silva was speaking to journalists on Saturday at the sidelines of a dinner marking the MpD’s 36th anniversary in Praia, two days after voter registration closed for the May 17 legislative elections.
Provisional figures (collected until September) point to around 403,000 registered voters — a 2.5% increase (around 9,700) compared to the last legislative elections in 2021 — with the final registered voters from the closing days yet to be added. Proposals to amend the electoral law have already circulated in parliament, envisaging automatic voter registration based on centralised electronic data already used for identity documents, as happens in other countries such as Portugal.
“We would need to update the electoral law and, unfortunately, consensus was not reached to change it, because it requires a qualified majority of two thirds,” Correia e Silva said.
Read more about this topic: Cape Verde’s voter numbers growing faster in the diaspora than on the islands
The National Elections Commission (CNE) also announced on Thursday that it will investigate possible responsibilities for delays in diaspora voter registration, following complaints from the main opposition party PAICV. Provisional figures point to 56,560 overseas voters across the three foreign constituencies, representing around 14% of the total.
Correia e Silva, prime minister since 2016, is seeking a third consecutive term, while the PAICV is fielding its president and mayor of the capital, Francisco Carvalho, in a bid to return to power. The two parties have governed Cape Verde since the first free elections in 1991 and currently hold 38 and 30 parliamentary seats respectively, with four going to the Independent and Democratic Cape Verdean Union (UCID), which hopes to play a key role in any potential hung parliament scenario.
