Sao Tome and Principe’s President Carlos Vila Nova dissolved Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada’s government on Monday and requested his party to propose a new candidate for the position of prime minister and head of government within 72 hours, according to a presidential decree.
The decree criticized the government’s “notable incapacity” under Trovoada’s leadership, citing the prime minister’s “frequent and prolonged absences” from the country, which it said failed to produce any visible benefits for the state or its people, instead resulting in unjustifiable expenses for the public treasury.
The decree also pointed out the prime minister’s lack of clear “strategic cooperation” and obvious “institutional disloyalty,” and “factors that have hindered the institutional relationship that should exist between the president of the republic and the government, through the prime minister.”
According to the national news agency STP-Press on Tuesday, tensions between the president and the prime minister, both members of the Independent Democratic Action Party (ADI), escalated late last year when the government approved an airport tax increase through a resolution, overriding a political veto from the head of state, who vowed to work toward annulling the measure.
The report noted that under the Constitution of Sao Tome and Principe, if the ADI proposes Trovoada’s name again, the president may invite the second-largest party to form a government. Should that party fail to secure a parliamentary majority, the president would then have the authority to call legislative elections within three months.
