Cape Verde poll too close to call

The final result in Cape Verde's presidential elections is still not known, as both candidates claim victory.

The team backing liberal candidate Carlos Veiga said that their man had won by 1,000 votes.

Pedro Pires: Party for the Independence of Cape Verde

Meanwhile, the socialist candidate was claiming on local radio that he had won by 500 votes.

The latest official results put Mr Veiga just ahead, but the electoral authority was saying that there was a problem with the count which would delay a final declaration.

Close run

With the results from just six polling stations still to come in Mr Veiga had 75,576 votes (50.18%) and Mr Pires had 75,043 votes (49.82%).

There are 979 votes left to be counted.

The first round of voting, two weeks ago, was also tight.

In the final tally, Mr Pires was narrowly in the lead with 45.9% of the vote as compared to Mr Veiga's 45.1%.

The two candidates have been the country's dominant political personalities since independence in 1975.

Carlos Veiga: Movement for Democracy

Both men are former prime ministers.

Mr Pires, from the African Party for the Indpendence of Cape Verde, led the country from 1975 to 1990.

He lost the Cape Verde's first multi-party elections to Mr Veiga's Democracy Movement.

Mr Veiga led the country until last year introducing neo-liberal economic reforms.

The socialists returned to power following January's parliamentary elections, and the biggest issue in the election was whether the left should dominate Cape Verdian politics.