World Bulletin / News Desk

Cape Verde's President Jorge Carlos Fonseca has hailed his "historic" re-election at the helm of one of Africa's most stable democracies, with nearly complete results Monday showing him sweeping almost three quarters of the vote.

Independent candidates Albertino Graca and Joaquim Monteiro took 22.6 and 3.4 percent each. 

Winning with such a large margin, Fonseca, 66, will embark on his second term in office without going through a runoff.

Fonseca swept the vote on all nine of Cape Verde's inhabited islands as well as an important diaspora contingent.

This made the result "an historic victory," Fonseca wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday night.

"I always thought I could win this election but I know that in a democracy there are no advance victories.

"I will continue to be a president for everyone no matter who they are," he added.

Fonseca's win was by no means a surprise, after his liberal Movement for Democracy (MFD) enjoyed a string of landslide victories earlier this year.

Fonseca had called on supporters to "say yes to freedom, justice and Cape Verde" and re-elect him for another five-year term, urging voters not to give in to fatigue caused by other electoral contests.

But in the event, abstentions soared in the Atlantic archipelago, reaching 64.1 percent.

The MFD's victories in a March general election and municipal polls in September dealt serious blows to the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), which consequently decided not to field a presidential candidate.

Fonseca's two rivals were veteran political campaigner Monteiro, 76, a key player in the country's fight for independence from Portugal, and university rector Graca, 57.

In 2011, Fonseca beat PAICV's Manuel Inocencio Sousawon in a runoff with 54 percent of the vote.