Pedro Pires

Infobox_President
name = Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires

---

order = President of Cape Verde
primeminister = José Maria Neves
vicepresident =
term_start = 22 March 2001
term_end =
predecessor = António Mascarenhas Monteiro
successor =
order2 = Prime Minister of Cape Verde
president2 = Aristides Pereira
António Mascarenhas Monteiro
deputy2 =
term_start2 = 08 July 1975
term_end2 = 04 April 1991
predecessor2 = Office created
successor2 = Carlos Veiga
religion =


birth_date = birth date and age|1934|04|29|df=yes
birth_place =
death_date =
death_place =
spouse =
party = PAICV

Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires (born 29 April 1934) has been the President of Cape Verde since March 2001. Before becoming President he was Prime Minister from 1975 to 1991.

After the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) decided to institute multiparty democracy in February 1990, Pires replaced President Aristides Pereira as General Secretary of PAICV in August 1990. The PAICV lost the multiparty parliamentary and presidential elections held in early 1991 and was left in opposition. At a party congress in August 1993, Pires was replaced as General Secretary by Aristides Lima and was instead elected as President of PAICV."Political Parties of the World" (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, page 113.] As a candidate for the party presidency at PAICV's September 1997 congress, he faced José Maria Neves ["Cape Verde: Opposition party congress opens", Radio Renascenca, Lisbon (nl.newsbank.com), September 19, 1997.] and prevailed with 68% of the vote. ["Cape Verde: Former PM elected leader of main opposition PAICV party", Radio Renascenca, Lisbon (nl.newsbank.com), September 22, 1997.] He stepped down as PAICV President in 2000 in preparation for a presidential bid in the next year's election ["Cape Verde: Town council leader to run for PAIGC party leadership", RDP Africa web site (nl.newsbank.com), May 29, 2000.] and he was succeeded by Neves. He announced his candidacy for the Presidency of Cape Verde on September 5 2000. ["Cape Verde: Former prime minister Pires to run for president in 2001 poll", RDP Africa web site (nl.newsbank.com), September 6, 2000.]

Pires was the PAICV candidate in the February 2001 presidential election, defeating former Prime Minister Carlos Veiga of the Movement for Democracy (MpD) in the second round by an extremely narrow margin. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1204648.stm "New president for Cape Verde"] , BBC News, March 6, 2001.] ["Cape Verde: National Election Commission declares Pedro Pires as new president", Televisao Publica de Angola (nl.newsbank.com), March 5, 2001.] [http://africanelections.tripod.com/cv.html Elections in Cape Verde] , African Elections Database.] Pires took office on March 22; the MpD boycotted his inauguration, saying that the election was marred by a "non-transparent process". ["Cape Verde: Main opposition party boycotts presidential inauguration", PANA news agency (nl.newsbank.com), March 23, 2001.] As President, Pires appointed Neves as Prime Minister. He ran for a second term in the presidential election held on 12 February 2006 and again prevailed over Veiga, this time winning in the first round, but still with a small margin of 50.98% against 49.02% for Veiga.

In May 2008, he said that he favored a cautious, long-term approach to the formation of a United States of Africa, preferring that regional integration precede a continent-wide union. He attended the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-IV) at this time. [ [http://www.panapress.com/freenewspor.asp?code=por014333&dte=28/05/2008 "Presidente cabo-verdiano prudente sobre Estados Unidos de África"] , Panapress, May 28, 2008 pt icon.]

References