{"id":23289,"date":"2026-02-04T11:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sao-tome-and-principe-court-rules-plenary-session-unconstitutional\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:07","slug":"sao-tome-and-principe-court-rules-plenary-session-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sao-tome-and-principe-court-rules-plenary-session-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe court rules plenary session unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s Constitutional Court has declared a recent plenary session called by a group of members of parliament outside the authority of the National Assembly\u2019s President to be unconstitutional, nullifying all decisions taken during the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The rulings include the removal of the Assembly President and the dismissal of judges from the Court itself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decision, handed down in less than 24 hours, deepens an ongoing political crisis in the country, which has been marked by party divisions, institutional clashes, and an electoral calendar already set for later this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the implications of the ruling, political analyst Liberato Moniz said; \u201cThis decision underscores the fragility of our political institutions. It sends a clear message that attempts to bypass constitutional procedures will not stand, but it also raises questions about how political actors will navigate the tensions ahead of the elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Constitutional Court\u2019s intervention comes at a delicate time for S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, as the nation seeks to balance governance, party interests, and the integrity of its electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23290,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23289","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s Constitutional Court has declared a recent plenary session to be unconstitutional","published_date":"2026-02-04 13:03:30","news_description":"S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s Constitutional Court has declared a recent plenary session to be unconstitutional","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26304,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23289\/revisions\/26304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}