The African Party of Independence of Cape Verde (Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde, PAICV) is a political party in Cape Verde.
It came to power as a sole ruling party after independence and ruled the country under the name African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. The party was formed with the intent of unifying Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, which fought their revolutionary wars against António Salazar's Portugal simultaneously. It took the present name in 1980 following a coup in Guinea-Bissau that ousted the Cape Verdean independence hero Amílcar Cabral's brother, Luís Cabral.
The PAICV was defeated in 1991 in the first multi-party elections by the Movement for the Democracy (MPD). It returned to power after the 2001 elections.
The PAICV, which advertises itself as an Africa-oriented political party in contrast to the somewhat neoliberal MPD, enjoys its greatest support in the municipalities most comparable to those on the African mainland: the dense urban areas such as Praia, and rural agricultural areas such as Santa Cruz and São Filipe.
