Sao Tome celebrates new president Evaristo Carvalho

The new President of Sao Tome, Evaristo Carvalho on Monday celebrated his victory with thousands of his supporters.

Carvalho, the ruling party’s candidate and one time prime minister won the first round of Sunday’s presidential election with 50.1% of the votes against the incumbent President Manuel Pinto da Costa.

One of his campaign promises was to fight poverty which affects two thirds of the population.

“Poverty will decrease with quality education, with employment, (and) with improved care. I am confident that the level of poverty will be lower,” said the president-elect Evaristo Carvalho.

The small African archipelago of barely 200,000 inhabitants has suffered harsh economic conditions with 90% dependency on international aid.

The former Portuguese colony is located in the resource-rich Gulf of Guinea but is yet to discover commercially viable oil that would further boost its economy.