Cape Verde with the colonial masters, who nevertheless refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. In 1951, Portugal changed Cape Verde's status from a colony to an overseas province in an attempt to blunt growing nationalism. In 1956, Amílcar Cabral and a group of fellow Cape Verdeans and Guineans organised (in Portuguese Guinea) the clandestine African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). It demanded improvement in economic, social and political conditions in Cape Verde and Portuguese Guinea and formed the basis of the two nations' independence movement. Moving its headquarters to Conakry, Guinea in 1960, the
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde the 1999–2000 elections. However, it returned to office after winning parliamentary elections in 2004 and presidential elections in 2005, since which it has remained the largest party in the National People's Assembly. The PAIGC also governed Cape Verde, from its independence in 1975 to 1980. After the military coup in Guinea-Bissau in 1980, the Cape Verdean branch of the PAIGC was converted into a separate party, the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde. The party was established in Bissau on 19 September 1956 as the African Party of Independence ("Partido Africano da Independência"), and was based on the