Celestino Rocha da Costa

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

Political career

He studied law and belongs to the party, Movimento de São Tomé e Príncipe de Libertação ( MLSTP ), which ruled the country since independence from Portugal in 1975 as a single party. Initially, he worked for the Ministry of Justice and was a member of various government departments since 1976. Most recently he was since the beginning of 1986 Minister of Education, Labour and Welfare.

In January 1988, the premiership was a constitutional amendment introduced again and he was appointed as head of government of President Manuel Pinto Costa. From 8 January 1988 to 7 February 1991, he was in office. His government was also returned from exile opposition and later prime minister Carlos da Graça as foreign minister to. In February and March 1988, the army was able to prevent coup attempts, behind which the opposition were suspected based in Gabon.

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