Former Portuguese Deputy Prime Minister Paulo Portas justified his presence in Angola on Tuesday, as invited electoral observer of the Angolan President, in the name of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“We came at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Angola and as Portugal and Angola have very important and excellent relations, this type of invitation is not rejected”, said Paulo Portas, this Tuesday, at the National Electoral Commission of Angola (CNE). ), where he received observer documentation, accompanied by former Social Democratic minister José Luís Arnaut, also invited by João Lourenço.
Faced with criticism for the large number of observers and his personal relationships with João Lourenço, Paulo Portas stressed that the “Portugal’s relations with Angola as sovereign states are decades old and do not end with a circumstance or a personality”.
And he warned: “If there are no Portuguese here, there will be others instead of the Portuguese.”
Regarding the elections that will follow on Wednesday, he said that the President of the Republic of Angola knows that his opinion “is independent”.
“My intention is to help these elections take place as smoothly as possible, in the most transparent way, in the most participatory way and that are for the good of Angola,” said Portas, who declined to comment on the controversies over electoral transparency in this scenario.
According to the former deputy prime minister, “Being an observer means seeing, listening, asking, listening before giving an opinion.”
For his part, José Luís Arnaut promised to “observe this entire process independently and impartially” so that “it can be carried out with all the desirable and expected normality.”
“All these processes are evolutionary processes, it is It is natural that here and there there is some doubt, but what matters is that very important steps have been taken in the affirmation of democracy”he said, also refusing to comment on criticism of the opacity of the electoral process.
“We are watching and I don’t want to speculate on speculation,” Arnaut told reporters.
After the meeting at the CNE, the two were received by the Angolan President, candidate of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power for 47 years.
Angola will vote on Wednesday to elect a new President of the Republic and new representatives in the National Assembly.
Source: Observadora
