By Julio Rodrigues
PRAIA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Cape Verde votes for president on Sunday, with incumbent José Maria Neves facing off against the West African island nation's first female candidate, a former justice minister, in a campaign focused on the need to create more jobs for young people.
Situated more than 600 km (373 miles) west of mainland Africa, the former Portuguese colony is home to only around 500,000 people, with a larger number of Cape Verdeans living overseas, mainly in the United States
and Portugal.
Neves, who was prime minister for 15 years and became president in 2021, is from Cape Verde's oldest political party, the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), which won 37 out of 72 seats in legislative elections in May, allowing Francisco Carvalho to become prime minister.
Analysts have tipped Neves to perform best out of the six candidates, including his main challenger Joana Rosa of the Movement for Democracy party, which had governed for 10 years prior to the legislative vote.
Under a hybrid parliamentary-presidential model, the president has veto authority and a mediating role in Cape Verde.
The archipelago, a tourism destination which hit the headlines this year when its men's soccer team reached the World Cup knockout stage and when a cruise ship off its coast was struck by hantavirus, has lost many of its young people to jobs abroad.
Neves has vowed to organize a youth summit during his second term while Rosa has said the government should make it possible for young people to "build their futures here at home and prevent the continued exodus of young Cape Verdeans abroad".
Polls were set to open at 8 a.m. (0900 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. (1900 GMT), with official provisional results expected in two or three days.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the two top candidates will compete in a runoff on November 29.
(Reporting by Julio Rodrigues; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
