"The mandate is twofold: monitoring [the electoral process] and, in case of need, mediation. For that reason, I come to be until the inauguration of the new president to be elected Sunday," said diplomat and former Foreign Minister Manuel Augusto.
"We are fully convinced, at the level of the region, that everything is going to go well," added the special envoy from CEEAC, adding that he was also assured "by the institutions that the conditions are being ensured."
These guarantees, according to Manuel Augusto, are reason "to believe that everything will be fine.
Even so, he pointed out, for what "goes less well" there will also "be solutions, always peaceful".
Manuel Augusto is leading the ECCAS delegation to the second round of the presidential elections in São Tomé and Príncipe, in what is described as a "good offices mission with the São Tomense political actors in order to preserve political stability" in the archipelago.
Manuel Augusto recalled that the monitoring of electoral processes is part of the ECCAS statutes, explaining that the figure of the special envoy arises when "one feels the need to do something more than just electoral observation.
"The special envoy was appointed because it was understood, at the level of the ECCAS commission, that there was a need for closer monitoring, as a result of the dispute, almost a mine-crisis," following the announcement of the results of the first round, he said.
Manuel Augusto assured that he will "discreetly, but objectively accompany the institutions and entities of Sao Tome and Principe for the electoral process to reach a good port".
The ECCAS special envoy was speaking on Friday after separate meetings with the President of the Sao Tomean Parliament, the Constitutional Court, the National Electoral Commission, and the two candidates running in this second round, Carlos Vila Nova and Guilherme Posser da Costa.
The second round of the presidential elections takes place on Sunday between Carlos Vila Nova, supported by the Independent Democratic Action (ADI, in opposition), and Guilherme Posser da Costa, supported by the MLSTP-PSD and the PCD-MDFM-UDD coalition, which sustain the Government.
