João Lourenço formalized his candidacy for the MPLA leadership with 21,750 signatures

The information was provided by Luísa Damião, coordinator of the candidacy subcommittee of the National Preparatory Commission for the 8th Ordinary Congress of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which takes place from 9 to 11 December.

According to Luísa Damião, who today received 21,750 signatures signed by João Lourenço's supporters across 18 Angolan provinces, the presentation of candidacies to individual bodies, within the scope of the party's conclave, has mobilized MPLA militants.

"Today, October 27th, we receive the first candidacy for the position of MPLA president. It is the candidacy of the militant João Lourenço, here represented by his representative, comrade Pedro de Morais Neto", said Luísa Damião, in the scope of a ceremony that took place at the party's national headquarters in Luanda.

The subcommittee of candidacies to the 8th Ordinary Congress of the MPLA, said the party's vice-president, is "open to the reception of other candidacies".

"And, obviously, it will carry out a competent analysis of the processes that are being delivered by the candidates to assess whether they are in compliance with the statutes and the electoral regulations," she noted.

At least 21,750 signatures, which subscribe to the candidacy of João Lourenço, current President of the Republic, elected in 2017, distributed in 196 folders, were delivered to the candidacy subcommittee of the December academic congress.

Pedro de Morais Neto, João Lourenço's representative, said that the signatures were collected in a record period of seven days, admitting that the work was arduous and that the numbers presented exceeded the requirements.

"It was a very painstaking work, it is true that we exceeded the requirements, since there were 100 signatures left by provinces, but this proves well the work that was developed to collect the subscriptions in favor of our candidate's candidacy", he underlined.

The MPLA politician and representative of João Lourenço's candidacy was also "confident and calm" in a positive result for his candidate, considering that he "has more than enough conditions to deserve the guarantee of all MPLA militants".

"In any case, we are in a democracy, we cannot predict a positive result, but I am almost certain that the subscriptions speak for themselves, we collect a very large number of subscriptions, I believe that the election process also has to be the same" , he argued.

The process of submitting candidatures, within the scope of this congress, started on the 20th of this month and runs until November 5th and the verification of their compliance takes place until November 6th.

Each candidacy must be supported by 2000 signatures, coming from 100 militants registered in each of the 18 provinces.

António Venâncio, MPLA militant for 48 years, was the first to announce his candidacy for the party's leadership, aiming for a more "prestigious" and democratic institution, having not yet formalized such a claim.

Speaking to Lusa, the engineer and current coordinator of the technical group for engineering issues MPLA said that the party is in a position to lead the country's democratization.

Luísa Damião also reported, after the candidacy subcommittee had verified all the submitted processes, that on November 8, the organ "will be able to notify the candidates and will make public the results on the validity or nullity of the candidacies".