In this electoral process that is still ongoing, "Portugal's role is to listen, to respect, not to interfere in what is not called, but to be naturally sensitive to these values: it is an Angolan issue, it is not an international issue, it is not a issue that is resolved by other intermediary bodies other than the Angolans", stated Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Two days after Adalberto Costa Júnior asked an international commission to evaluate the electoral records, as data from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) do not match those from the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that this "is an internal Angolan issue", which must be "resolved among Angolans and not by international intermediaries, even if they are friends", as is the case with Portugal or the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).
"None of us should interfere in what belongs to Angola", said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, adding: "foreigners can watch and accompany", but "it is an Angolan issue and it is in the middle of the electoral process".
This Sunday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received the leader of UNITA at the hotel, fulfilling a request made by Adalberto Costa Júnior even before the election campaign.
"I had promised myself that, coming here to Angola, I would naturally talk to him, on top of that, after exercising the right to vote", he explained.
At the meeting, "I spoke while listening, that is, I listened more than I spoke", said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who did not want to explain what he spoke to the opposition leader who contests the CNE's results and asks for an international commission to compare the minutes of polling stations held by delegates with which the authorities have.
Provisional data give an absolute majority to the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, with 124 deputies in 230 terms that make up the National Assembly.
About Adalberto Costa Júnior, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa praised the presence of the UNITA leader in the official funeral ceremonies of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, highlighting the spirit of having the "national interest above all, within a spirit of pacification".
At the press conference at the Portuguese ambassador's residence in Luanda, the head of state praised the "great maturity of Angolan citizens and political Angolans in dealing with what is Angolan among Angolans", dealing with the electoral process with "all the means that the constitution and the law allow", always "in a climate of peace".
For Angolans, "the peace" won after the civil war between the MPLA and UNITA is irreversible, added Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who met on Saturday with João Lourenço, Angolan President and leader of the government party, but "not speaking internal problems" of the electoral process.
"A President of the Republic who is in office has to be the guardian of the functioning of the institutions and, even if he is a candidate, he will not speak with a foreign head of state about an internal electoral situation", justified Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who also had meetings with other presidents of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, present in Luanda.
Regarding the official funeral celebrations, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that it was a "very intense and very complete ceremony", with a "civic and religious component", of Methodist and Catholic worship, with an "appreciable number of heads of state".
