Speaking to Lusa, Bali Chionga spoke about the VIII extraordinary congress of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which begins on Monday and ends on Wednesday next week, in Luanda, stressing that the conclaves of the party in power always move a lot of opinions and set a lot of expectations, as it is the party that founded the State and has governed since independence in 1975.
Regarding the congress, announced last October with the motto of an assessment of the 50 years of independence that the country will mark in 2025, several speculations arose around the need to adjust the statutes, more specifically article 120, which determines that the president of the party is the candidate for President of the Republic in the country's general elections.
The jurist argued that a legal-technical analysis of article 120 cannot be done in isolation, without extending to articles 81 and 91 of the party's statutes, "because there is indeed a normative conflict".
"Because the 120th says that the president of the party is the head of the elections, the 91st article says that the Political Bureau proposes the candidate for the presidential elections approved by the Central Committee", while the 81st indicates that it is up to the Extraordinary Congress to elect, in the event of definitive impediment or resignation of the MPLA president, his replacement, he indicated.
"If you notice, the same result is produced by at least two entities. One says that the head of the list is the President of the Republic and another normative provision within the same statutes says that the Political Bureau is the one that proposes the head of the list and that it is then approved by the Central Committee.
According to Bali Chionga, the proposed amendment suggests the designation after an internal electoral process, highlighting that the MPLA has always had internal elections, despite "unfortunately, critics don't pay attention to this".
For the analyst, the congress is "special" in that it is marked "by many changes, many alterations", which arise mainly from the way the party has been facing internal processes and the dynamics of foreign policy, since João Lourenço as president.
The university professor also said he agrees with the opinions that what happens in the MPLA affects the country, which leads the party to seek to position itself as a leader in changes, not only internal but also external, namely greater democratization of internal processes.
"I say greater democratization because there will be adjustments to the statutes and my understanding is that these adjustments will bring greater democracy, greater clarification in relation to the competencies of certain bodies. Consequently, when there is greater democratization in political parties (...) these aspects end up affecting national life", he stressed.
Asked to comment on the precautionary measure filed with the Constitutional Court by MPLA activist António Venâncio, to challenge the congress, Bali Chionga considered it "a sign of democracy that the party gives".
"We have a history of situations having happened in other parties and members who questioned internal processes ended up being expelled from these parties. Engineer Venâncio is the second time he has done it, he already did it in the party elections in 2022, he has done it again now, but it is considered a normal member", he said, ruling out the possibility of a challenge to the act at this point.
According to the lawyer, the congress was prepared from a collegial point of view and with democratic participation, not leaving aside the rights that each of the activists has, when they understand that some rights are being violated.
