According to Sapalo António, the preparatory committee for the conclave, rescheduled for October 1, 2 and 3, was formed outside the statutes and in the interests of the outgoing president, Benedito Daniel, who must run for re-election.
To Lusa, Sapalo António, stated that the preparatory commission for the V Congress “does not have the legitimacy and suitability” to carry out acts leading to the conclave due to the fact, he stressed, that it was not created by the National Committee, but by the executive secretariat and in the interests of the president outgoing.
“For this reason, all acts that this supposed preparatory committee carries out are null and void, due to these illegalities that violate the party’s statutes and even more so because a main action is being processed before the Constitutional Court,” he said.
According to Sapalo António, the mandate of the outgoing president, Benedito Daniel, elected in May 2017, expired in May 2023, and he intends to run again for the position, but has lost legitimacy and statutory legality.
To avoid the extinction of the party and for an inclusive and transparent congress, he explained, “taking into account the impasse in convening the congress due to the illegitimacy of the current president”, the members of the PRS National Committee, under the leadership of president emeritus Eduardo Kuangana , collected and deposited signatures in the TC, aiming for a congress in obedience to the statutes.
The conclave of social renewers was initially scheduled for April 2, 3 and 4, but was suspended after the Constitutional Court accepted the injunction of Sapalo António, who had been removed from running for party leadership due to alleged irregularities.
The plenary of STF ministers agreed, in March, to grant the injunction and, consequently, order the PRS to refrain from holding the announced V Ordinary Congress, “until the trial of the main action takes place”.
The preparatory committee for the V Ordinary Congress of the PRS deliberated, on Friday, the admission of Sapalo António's pre-candidacy for the position of president of the party, after he complained to the Constitutional Court of “impediments and irregularities”, stating that he had only as an opponent Benedito Daniel.
The pre-candidacy of Gaspar Fernandes (PRS youth leader), the coordinator of the preparatory committee for the V Ordinary Congress of social renewers, was rejected for not having 15 years of activism in the party, highlighted, at the time, the coordinator of the preparatory committee , Dondji Vieira.
Sapalo António, founding member of the PRS, insisted that the deliberations of the preparatory committee “are null” and that the action of that body is vitiated, allegedly by the “greedy and dictatorial spirit” of Benedito Daniel, “who wants to perpetuate himself as president of the party ”.
