According to Joaquim Miguéis, member of the candidacy subcommittee of the National Preparatory Commission for the VIII congress, which takes place between 9 and 11 December, activist António Francisco Venâncio publicly expressed his intention to run for president of the MPLA.
But, according to Miguéis, until the end of the candidacy presentation period, on the 5th, the activist did not enter the candidacy process to verify its conformity or nullity.
"We reiterate that there was no submission of candidacy by the militant António Venâncio. The candidacy subcommittee only acknowledged the receipt of a letter with the reference claim request for extension of deadlines, whose assessment was concluded on November 8th and is being carried out today steps with a view to forwarding the response to the letter to the militant António Venâncio", he stressed.
Regarding the complaint presented, the candidacy subcommittee considers that the request for an extension of the deadline for the submission of the candidacy, under the statutory rules, "is impracticable", in compliance with paragraph 2 of article 104 of the MPLA statute, under the epigraph support for candidacies, which establishes that the presentation of candidacies for the MPLA president must take place between 15 days after the date of the convening of the congress and up to 45 days before the date of its realization.
"The congress is the only competent body to review, modify and approve the statutory norms. It is not within its competence to satisfy the request for an extension of the deadline presented by the militant António Venâncio, the candidacy subcommittee, after analysis of the referred letter, for justified reasons maintains the only period from October 20th to November 5th unchanged for the presentation and candidacies for the position of MPLA president, considering it concluded", he said.
According to Joaquim Miguéis, the process will continue its march with the realization of the electoral campaign, which will last for 15 days, with an estimated beginning on November 23 and ending on December 7th.
"The virtue of the manifestation of intention and the effort undertaken by the militant António Venâncio are registered, encouraging him to continue with the same determination and militant spirit", he stressed.
In the letter, according to Miguéis, António Venâncio presented a set of complaints, "which stem from the difficulties in the process of collecting signatures in most provinces", also referring that "there will have been an unequal treatment by the candidates".
"We take good note of his complaints", said Joaquim Miguéis, stressing that the process of collecting signatures is complex, "it is not an administrative process, it is a strong political process".
"And I believe that, in the future, other collection strategies will be taken into account, because what happened is that the candidate says that he encountered a lot of resistance from the militants and that eventually this will have resulted from a superior orientation, that's not true, there isn't guidance in this regard," he rejected.
The MPLA leader stressed that the process of collecting signatures is also a process that falls within the scope of participatory democracy, in other words, "in this process, the militants are free to join, to subscribe or not".
"And, therefore, that's what happened, the militants, many of them, offered their resistance, I believe that the absence of any notoriety, of any prior knowledge of the candidate, will have also contributed to this happening, but, in any case, these are quick analyzes that we are carrying out on these complaints, they were taken into good standing by the candidacy subcommittee", he stressed.
Joaquim Miguéis said that the party learned that António Venâncio is proceeding with the signature collection process, however, the signature collection process has been completed since the 5th and "all the diligence that can be done afterwards does not have any kind of support at the level of the application subcommittee".
Urged to comment on the possibility put forward by António Venâncio of challenging the VIII congress if his candidacy is not accepted, Joaquim Miguéis said that "the militant is free".
"If he wants to take this step, he can do it. It is not up to the candidacy subcommittee to pronounce on this, our role is not this, if he thinks he has the right to present the challenge to the competent bodies, he is free to do so . Our decision regarding the extension of the deadline is based on the bylaws and is impracticable", he reiterated.
"If you were requesting an extension for another 15 days, this is not possible, not for another day, not for another three, not four or for another 10, that is not possible. The deadlines are conveniently aligned with the statutory norm", he said.
Joaquim Miguéis said that the complaints were taken into account, "but the fundamental problem is not the obstruction of his candidacy, in the process of collecting signatures".
"The underlying problem needs a longer analysis, so that it is actually possible to understand the cause of the failure of the militant António Venâncio in this process of collecting signatures", he added.
