{"id":24069,"date":"2026-02-22T09:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sao-tome-and-principe-elects-new-constitutional-court-judges-ahead-of-2026-polls\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:49","slug":"sao-tome-and-principe-elects-new-constitutional-court-judges-ahead-of-2026-polls","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sao-tome-and-principe-elects-new-constitutional-court-judges-ahead-of-2026-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe elects new Constitutional Court Judges ahead of 2026 polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, Parliament has recently elected new members to the Constitutional Court, whose primary mandate will be to prepare the country for this year\u2019s electoral process and to resolve pending cases.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Artur Vera Cruz, Jonas Gentil, Liudmila Santos, Marta de Sacramento and Rolando Costa Neto were elected as judges of the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, a new electoral law has been approved, introducing automatic and permanent voter registration and transforming the National Electoral Commission into a permanent body with clearly defined powers over the entire electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Political analyst Liberato Moniz says the reforms represent a decisive step towards strengthening electoral credibility in S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe appointment of new Constitutional Court judges and the adoption of a permanent electoral framework send an important signal about institutional stability. If implemented transparently, these changes could significantly enhance public confidence in the 2026 elections. However, the real test will lie in the independence of these institutions and their ability to manage disputes impartially,\u201d Moniz said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":24070,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-24069","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe Parliament has recently elected new members to the Constitutional Court","published_date":"2026-02-22 11:05:58","news_description":"S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe Parliament has recently elected new members to the Constitutional Court","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24069","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\/24069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26865,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24069\/revisions\/26865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=24069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}