Turnout: 40.99%
About this election
Provisional results released by the National Electoral Commission (CEN) gave incumbent Carlos Vila Nova an outright first-round victory with 55.94% of the valid vote (31,596), ahead of Nito Abreu of the Independent Democratic Action (ADI) on 41.42% (23,394). The two independents trailed far behind — Miques João Bonfim took 1.58% (892) and Eugénio Tiny 1.07% (603). Because Vila Nova cleared half of the valid votes, no second round is needed and he secures a fresh five-year term.
Turnout was strikingly low: of 142,191 registered voters just 58,281 cast a ballot, a turnout of 40.99%, of which 56,485 were valid and 1,796 blank or invalid (3.08%). Participation was weakest in the diaspora, where abstention reached 79.97%. Jorge Bom Jesus, who withdrew from the race after the legal deadline, remained on the ballot paper and the votes cast for him were counted as null. These figures are provisional, pending the definitive tally from the general apuramento assembly.
Five names appear on the ballot, though the field is effectively a four-way contest after one withdrawal. The two historic parties have swapped their usual roles: the MLSTP/PSD backs the incumbent, while the ADI puts up its own candidate against him.
| Candidate | Backing | Background |
| Carlos Vila Nova | Independent (MLSTP/PSD support) | Incumbent President, seeking a second term |
| Nito Abreu | Independent Democratic Action (ADI) | Leader of the ADI parliamentary group |
| Jorge Bom Jesus | Independent | Leader of the MLSTP/PSD; withdrew after his party endorsed Vila Nova, but remains on the ballot |
| Miques João Bonfim | Independent | Lawyer |
| Eugénio Tiny | Independent | Diplomat |
A sixth prospective candidate, Nino Monteiro — supported by the Movement of Independent Citizens – Socialist Party (MCI–PS) — had his candidacy rejected by the Constitutional Court and does not appear on the ballot. Jorge Bom Jesus, the MLSTP/PSD leader, initially entered the race as an independent but pulled out once his party decided to endorse President Vila Nova; because he withdrew after the legal deadline, his name still appears on the ballot paper.
The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, a two-island nation in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Central Africa, holds the first round of its presidential election on 19 July 2026. With 142,296 registered voters (121,771 on the islands and 20,525 in the diaspora), it is one of Africa's smallest democracies — and one of its most stable, having held regular competitive multiparty elections since the end of one-party rule in 1990. The vote chooses a head of state for a five-year term in a semi-presidential republic where executive power is shared between the President and a Prime Minister drawn from the National Assembly. Incumbent President Carlos Vila Nova, elected in 2021, is standing for a second term — but in a striking realignment he does so with the backing of the historic MLSTP/PSD, rather than the Independent Democratic Action (ADI) that supported him last time; the ADI, split since the 2025 governmental crisis, fields its own candidate.
The President is elected by direct universal suffrage using a two-round majority (run-off) system: to win in the first round a candidate must secure more than half of all valid votes; if none does, the two best-placed candidates contest a second round several weeks later. The presidency is a powerful office in São Tomé's constitution — the head of state can dissolve parliament, appoints the Prime Minister taking account of the parliamentary majority, and has historically acted as a check on the government — but day-to-day executive authority rests with the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, who are responsible to the 55-member National Assembly. This division of powers means cohabitation between a president and a government of different political colours is common and has repeatedly shaped the country's politics.
On election day, Sunday 19 July 2026, polling stations (assembleias de voto) open at 07:00 and close at 17:00 local time — São Tomé and Príncipe keeps standard time year-round at UTC+00:00 (GMT), so those hours are the same in UTC. Counting begins at each polling station immediately after the close of the poll, and the National Electoral Commission (CEN) starts releasing provisional figures the same evening. With an electorate of about 142,000 spread across a compact territory, a clear picture of the first-round result — and whether a run-off will be needed — typically emerges within a day or two.
Two parties have dominated since independence from Portugal in 1975. The Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe – Social Democratic Party (MLSTP/PSD) is the historic former single party that led the country to independence and governed for decades. Its main rival is Independent Democratic Action (ADI), founded and long led by Patrice Trovoada, son of former president Miguel Trovoada, which has been the other principal pole of power. Smaller parties and coalitions, along with independent candidates, also contest the presidency, and the office has frequently been won by figures running with party backing rather than as formal party leaders.
Carlos Vila Nova, an ADI-backed independent and former infrastructure minister, won the 2021 presidential election, and ADI under Patrice Trovoada went on to win an absolute majority in the September 2022 legislative election, making Trovoada Prime Minister. The period has not been without drama: in November 2022 the country experienced an attempted coup, which the government said it had repelled, followed by controversy over the deaths of detainees. The alliance then broke apart. In January 2025 President Vila Nova dismissed Prime Minister Trovoada's government; a court ruling later found the dismissal unconstitutional but without retroactive effect, and Vila Nova appointed Américo Ramos as prime minister without the endorsement of Trovoada's ADI. The rupture split the ADI and scrambled the usual battle lines, so that by 2026 the MLSTP/PSD — the party Vila Nova defeated in 2021 — has thrown its weight behind him, while the ADI runs against the president it once backed. The islands face the familiar challenges of a small island developing state — dependence on imports and external aid, a narrow economy built on cocoa, fishing and nascent tourism, and long-discussed but largely unrealised offshore oil prospects in the Gulf of Guinea.
The 2021 presidential election went to a run-off. In the first round on 18 July 2021 Carlos Vila Nova led the field; in the second round on 5 September 2021 he defeated the MLSTP/PSD candidate, former prime minister Guilherme Posser da Costa.
| 2021 run-off | Vote % |
| Carlos Vila Nova (ADI-backed) | 57.5 |
| Guilherme Posser da Costa (MLSTP/PSD) | 42.5 |
The central questions are whether President Vila Nova can convert his new MLSTP/PSD backing into a second term, whether the ADI — now running its parliamentary leader Nito Abreu after breaking with the president it once supported — can win back the presidency, and how the outcome reshapes the cohabitation between the head of state and the government. With such a small electorate, campaigns are intensely personal and local, the autonomous region of Príncipe carries symbolic weight, and the diaspora — concentrated in Portugal — can matter at the margins. Turnout and the first-round/run-off dynamic will be the key indicators on the night.
São Tomé and Príncipe is a lower-middle-income micro-state whose economy rests on agriculture — historically cocoa — fishing, donor support and a small but growing tourism sector. For two decades hopes have rested on potentially large offshore oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Guinea, including a joint development zone shared with Nigeria, but commercial production has yet to materialise and the windfall remains hypothetical. Public finances are tight and the country is exposed to external shocks and high shipping costs. How candidates propose to diversify the economy, attract investment and manage the long-promised oil question features in every national campaign.
The figures above are the provisional national count published by the National Electoral Commission (Comissão Eleitoral Nacional, CEN) after the 19 July vote. The CEN releases its results through official announcements rather than an automatic real-time data feed, so this page was updated by hand as each official figure was confirmed, starting on election night. Vote shares are entered exactly as published, to two decimal places, and the vote counts reconcile with the commission's own totals: 58,281 ballots cast, 1,796 of them blank or invalid, leaving 56,485 valid votes. The page will be updated once more when the general apuramento assembly certifies the definitive tally; historically that adjusts counts only marginally.
The first round is scheduled for 19 July 2026. If no candidate wins an absolute majority, a run-off between the two leading candidates follows a few weeks later. The President is elected for a five-year term.
Carlos Vila Nova has been President since September 2021. First elected with Independent Democratic Action (ADI) backing, he is running for re-election in 2026 — this time with the support of the rival MLSTP/PSD. After a January 2025 governmental crisis in which he dismissed Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada (ADI), the government is now led by Prime Minister Américo Ramos.
By direct universal suffrage using a two-round (majority run-off) system. The President is head of state with significant powers in a semi-presidential republic, while executive government is led by a Prime Minister responsible to the National Assembly.
Politics centres on two long-standing parties: the Independent Democratic Action (ADI) and the historic Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe – Social Democratic Party (MLSTP/PSD), along with smaller groupings. The islands are one of Africa's smaller and more stable multiparty democracies.
Five names appear on the ballot: incumbent Carlos Vila Nova (independent, backed by the MLSTP/PSD); Nito Abreu, leader of the ADI parliamentary group, standing for the ADI; and independents Miques João Bonfim (a lawyer) and Eugénio Tiny (a diplomat). Jorge Bom Jesus, the MLSTP/PSD leader, withdrew after his party endorsed Vila Nova but remains on the ballot because he pulled out after the legal deadline. A sixth hopeful, Nino Monteiro (backed by the MCI–PS), had his candidacy rejected by the Constitutional Court.
Polling stations open at 07:00 and close at 17:00 local time on Sunday 19 July 2026. São Tomé and Príncipe uses UTC+00:00 (GMT) all year, so those hours are identical in UTC. Counting starts at each station right after the close of the poll.
Incumbent Carlos Vila Nova was re-elected in the first round with 55.94% of the valid vote (31,596), ahead of Nito Abreu of the ADI on 41.42% (23,394). Because he passed 50% no run-off was held. Miques João Bonfim took 1.58% and Eugénio Tiny 1.07%. Turnout was 40.99%. These are the CEN's provisional figures, pending the definitive tally.
Príncipe, the smaller of the two main islands, has its own autonomous regional government and elects a regional assembly, but it shares the national presidency with São Tomé. Although its population is small, it carries symbolic weight in national campaigns, and candidates routinely campaign there to demonstrate that they will govern for the whole archipelago rather than the larger island alone.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.