"Neither I nor the party support anyone at all," said João Lourenço in an interview he gave on Monday to Angolan Public Television (TPA), stressing that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has its own rules and "is a very mature party."
The head of state stressed that there are no candidates yet and anyone who tries to convey the idea that they have his "blessing, so that they can start the race now or later" will be publicly refuted.
According to João Lourenço, the MPLA has internal democracy and "is adverse to those who present themselves as being special, as being super militants, super generals, especially when in reality it turns out that they are nothing of the sort."
"Because it is easy to go into each person's history and retrace the chronology of everything that person did, good and bad, over time, this is the easiest thing to do, and many of us are still alive, we know what each person did," he said.
For João Lourenço, a militant who presents himself as "a super militant, a super general, destined to be president of the Republic", this is something "very serious".
"Those who are saying that there is no internal democracy in the MPLA should understand that presenting themselves as predestined is what kills internal democracy in the MPLA", he said.
According to João Lourenço, the message they are sending is that it is not worth running, that "they are wasting time, because 'fate has already predestined me, it has already defined my future and the future of Angola, I will be the President of Angola'".
The comments by the President of the Republic, who is also the leader of the MPLA, come in the wake of news reports that General Higino Carneiro, former governor of Luanda and a prominent figure in the party, intended to run for President of the Republic in the next elections and had already expressed this intention to João Lourenço.
Angola will hold general elections in 2027 and several proposals to amend the electoral legislative package, submitted by the Government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party, are currently under discussion in the National Assembly.
Regarding these proposals, the President of the Republic said that "man's work is never perfect", and that there is a need to change the laws to eliminate "as much as possible" suspicions about the process.
"From election to election, we are realizing that we could do better, have laws that complicate things less, that create less suspicion. Above all, the main objective is to ensure that there is less suspicion, because, unfortunately, in our elections, on the African continent, suspicion follows us", he stressed.
João Lourenço also considered it "the most normal thing in any democracy" to receive the leader of the main opposition party, referring to the audience he granted in May to Adalberto Costa Júnior.
"He is a member of the Council of the Republic and always participates in meetings, but for a long time, for reasons unknown to me, he did not ask for an audience, perhaps because he did not consider it necessary. We soon received his request and promptly granted it, [...] obviously we address issues related to the political and economic situation of our country", he said.
According to João Lourenço, these meetings should be held regularly when the issues warrant it and there is availability for them to take place "as long as there is material that justifies" the audiences.
At the end of the meeting, Adalberto Costa Júnior advocated for ongoing dialogue to ease the political tension, a position that João Lourenço considered "a wrong way to be in politics".
"We must make every effort, all political actors, to not contribute to such political tension, to ensure that there are no facts, if there are any, that they are as few as possible, facts that could lead to such political tension. It is not about provoking tension and then, as a remedy, running to the palace to talk to the President of the Republic and everything is resolved and, the next day, provoking political tension again, this is not a solution," said the President.
