Sao Tom and Pr ncipe. Information Tourism. A Book on Sao Tom and Pr ncipe On 7 August 2016, Evaristo Carvalho, candidate of the ruling Ac ao Democratica Independente ADI was elected president of Sao Tom and Pr ncipe, Africa's second smallest country and one of the very few African states with a semi-presidential system. For the first time in the country's 25-year democratic history the candidate of the ruling party won the elections. However, unlike earlier elections in the small archipelago for the first time the elections were marked by accusations of irregularities that culminated in the refusal of the incumbent President Manuel Pinto da Costa, the second most voted candidate, to participate in the final ballot. President Carvalho is not expected to rigorously monitor or even complicate the government's actions, since he is widely considered a proxy of Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada. Such harmony between government and president is unprecedented in Sao Tom and Pr ncipe, because