Sao Tome, Sept. 5, 2025 (Lusa) - Sao Tome and Principe's new automatic voter registration platform was presented on Thursday as part of the Electoral System Reform Project (PReSE), funded by the European Union, and is awaiting legal revision to be adopted for the 2026 elections.
The presentation took place at the end of training for technicians from the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries (DGRN) and the National Electoral Commission (CEN) of Sao Tome and Principe, as part of PReSE, which has been implemented by Portuguese cooperation through Camões.
DGRN Director Silvestre d'Apresentação told Lusa that the platform is 98% ready and is expected to be tested in January next year.
"It's a project that comes at a good time for the country [...] this will reduce the costs of election logistics in a big way," emphasised Silvestre d'Apresentação.
Portugal's ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe, Luís Leandro da Silva, emphasised that "the advantages of this new system are multiple and evident, avoiding manual registrations which are repetitive and costly and ensuring that electoral rolls are permanently updated so that no citizen is unable to exercise their right to vote".
Sao Tome's foreign minister, Ilza Amado Vaz, argued that "this substantial change that is being made" needs to have the benefit of "a consensual agreement and a national commitment".
"Now we need the legal basis, so that the legal framework can be created to replace the current mechanism with the modern, more secure, more transparent mechanism that will strengthen our democracy, which is considered one of the best in Central Africa and Africa," said Ilza Amado Vaz.
During the event, which was attended by MPs and representatives of political parties, the Portuguese ambassador greeted the MPs who were working during the parliamentary holiday period to discuss the legislative revision that will enable the adoption of the new automatic registration system.
The Electoral System Reform Project (PReSE) was presented in May and aims to respond to the main recommendations of the 2022 European Union Electoral Observation Mission and the priorities defined by the São Toméan government, to strengthen the credibility, transparency and modernisation of the national electoral system.
According to a note from Portuguese cooperation in Sao Tome, at the centre of the reform is the interoperability platform between the civil registry database (SIGA and Identity Card) and the voter registration database, which will allow voter registration to be carried out automatically, securely, transparently, efficiently and economically, avoiding repeated manual registrations and ensuring the permanent updating of the electoral roll.
Portuguese cooperation says that this platform is being developed by the University of Aveiro, which is one of the partners in this project that also includes strengthening the DGRN's technological capacities by delivering and installing essential equipment to stabilise and modernise the civil registry systems and ensure greater reliability, operational continuity and protection of citizens' data.
Sao Tome and Principe will hold local elections in the Autonomous Region of Principe, parliamentary and presidential elections in the second half of 2026.
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