"We came at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Angola and as Portugal and Angola have very important and excellent relations, this type of invitation is not refused", said Paulo Portas, this Tuesday, at the National Electoral Commission (CNE), where he received the observer documentation, accompanied by former social-democratic minister José Luís Arnaut, also invited by João Lourenço.
Faced with criticism of the large number of observers and his personal relationships with João Lourenço, Paulo Portas stressed that "Portugal's relations with Angola as sovereign states are decades old and do not end with a circumstance or a personality".
And he warned: "If there are no Portuguese here, there will be others instead of the Portuguese".
As for the elections that he will follow on Wednesday, he said that the President of the Republic of Angola knows that his opinion "is independent".
"My intention is to help these elections run as smoothly as possible, in the most transparent way, in the most participatory way and that result in the good of Angola", said Portas, who declined to comment on the controversies about electoral transparency at this stage.
According to the former Portuguese deputy prime minister, "being an observer means seeing, listening, asking, listening before giving an opinion".
For his part, José Luís Arnaut promised to "observe this whole process independently and impartially" so that "it can proceed with all the desirable and expected normality".
"All these processes are evolutionary processes, it is natural that here and there there may be any doubts, but what matters is that very important steps have been taken in the affirmation of democracy", he said, also refusing to comment on the criticism of the opacity of the electoral process.
"We are watching and I don't want to speculate on speculation," Arnaut told reporters.
After the meeting at the CNE, the two were received by the President, who is a candidate for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power for 47 years.
Angola will vote on Wednesday to choose a new President of the Republic and new representatives in the National Assembly.
