Celestino Rocha da Costa

Celestino Rocha da Costa (born September 25, 1938 , † December 23, 2010 in Lisbon ) was Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe from 1988 to 1991 .

Political career

He studied law and belonged to the Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe (MLSTP) party, which ruled the country as a unitary party since independence from Portugal in 1975 . He initially worked for the Ministry of Justice and since 1976 has been a member of various government departments. Most recently he was Minister for Education, Labor and Social Affairs from the beginning of 1986.

In January 1988, a constitutional amendment reinstated the office of prime minister and he was appointed head of government by President Manuel Pinto da Costa . From January 8, 1988 to February 7, 1991 he was in office. His government also included Carlos da Graça, who had returned from exile and later Prime Minister, as Foreign Minister . In February and March 1988, the army was able to stop coup attempts that were suspected of being opposition groups based in Gabon .

After the introduction of democracy in 1990/1991, his party, which was renamed MLSTP-PSD in autumn 1990, temporarily lost its previous dominance. In the first free elections on January 20, 1991, the MLSTP-PSD achieved 30.5% of the vote and 21 of the 55 parliamentary seats and went into the opposition.

Web links

• Short biography (English / Chinese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death report  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Portuguese ), accessed July 10, 2017