According to the final communiqué of the I extraordinary meeting of the Central Committee of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the general list of candidates for deputies to the National Assembly for the five-year period 2022-2027 was approved, with 580 votes in favour, corresponding to to 94.5 percent of the vote, 23 votes against and 11 abstentions.
The list features the leader of the MPLA, João Lourenço, as head of the list, followed by Esperança Maria Eduardo Francisco da Costa, current Secretary of State for Fisheries, director of the Botany Center at Universidade Agostinho Neto and candidate for vice-president of the Republic.
Thirdly, there is the name of Carolina Cerqueira, candidate for president of the National Assembly, who now occupies the position of Minister of State for the Social Area.
If the MPLA wins the elections to be held in August this year, Angola will have a female vice-president for the first time in its history.
In the opening speech of the meeting, the leader of the MPLA, João Lourenço, informed that the non-inclusion of the current vice president, Bornito de Sousa, as a candidate for the same position, was in obedience to his request.
In his speech during the meeting, Bornito de Sousa explained that the "generational renewal (for between 45 and 55 years old on average) that could eventually coincide with gender balance" made sense, and that he informed the party president .
"[I consider it] necessary, important and urgent to bring the state's top leadership closer together in relation to the average age of the electoral majority and the population in general, which are quite young", he stressed.
The list of candidates also includes the names of Luísa Damião, current deputy president of the MPLA, Bornito de Sousa, and Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, current president of the National Assembly.
At this Monday's meeting, the MPLA Central Committee was informed about the draft Government program and the MPLA's electoral manifesto, sending their approval to its extraordinary session to be held on 2 June.
The members of the Central Committee encouraged the leader of the MPLA to continue with the actions in progress, with the spirit of "correct what is wrong, improve what is good", reinforced with the primacy that "the MPLA is the strength of the people ".
The communiqué stresses that, within the scope of the implementation of the National Development Plan 2018-2022, the members of the Central Committee welcomed the results achieved in the materialization of various programs of a socio-economic nature, "which are improving the living conditions of the populations , and reflect substantial contributions to the country's sustainable development".
