Cape Verde former president wins good African governance award

Pedro Verona Pires given $5m Mo Ibrahim prize for leading west African state out of poverty and promoting democracy

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press, Monday 10 October 2011

Pedro Verona Pires was hailed for turning Cape Verde into a model of
democracy, stability and prosperity during his 10-year leadership.
Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters

A former president of Cape Verde, hailed for turning his small island nation into a model of democracy, stability and prosperity, has won a $5m prize for good African governance.

In an announcement made in London, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation award committee said Pedro Verona Pires helped lead the country of 200,000 off west Africa's coast out of poverty and won recognition for his human rights record during his 10 years in power.

Last year and the year before the organisation did not award a prize, saying no leaders met the criteria for promoting development and democracy and for handing over power peacefully.

In citing Pires the committee, which included Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt and former Mo Ibrahim prize winner Festus Mogae of Botswana, said the Cape Verde leader, at the end of his second term, dismissed suggestions the constitution be changed to allow him to run again.

Pires was appointed independent Cape Verde's first prime minister in 1975. He remained in the post for 16 years, then lost his country's first democratic elections in 1991.

Pires was then elected in 2001 and again five years later.

"Cape Verde is now seen as an African success story, economically, socially and politically," the prize citation said.

The prize created in 2007 by Sudan-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim awards $5m (£3.2m) over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life thereafter.

The previous winners are Mozambique's former president Joaquim Chissano, who brought peace and democracy to his country; and Mogae, who as president campaigned to lower the HIV infection rate in Botswana. Former South African president Nelson Mandela was named an honorary laureate of the prize in 2007.