The president of the Independent Democratic Action (ADI, opposition), Patrice Trovoada, returns to the country this week, after four years abroad, to participate in the electoral campaign and ask for an absolute majority in the elections on September 25, a source announced. official. this Monday.
“The party leader will join us later this week. Will you join us this week? [e ficar] until the end of the campaign. We’ve been running the thing because it’s not news to anyone why Patrice isn’t here, but people they often try to hide the truthsbut people know there was persecution,” ADI Secretary General Américo Ramos told the Portuguese press.
The former prime minister (2014-2018) and candidate for Independent Democratic Action (ADI, opposition), Patrice Trovoada, has been absent from the country since 2018, after the legislative elections, which he won but failed to form a government in the face of the so-called ‘new majority’ (MLSTP/PSD-PCD-MDFM-UDD).
Patrice Trovada’s return has been criticized by the ‘new majority’ parties who accuse him of being in the country only when he is in government.
However, for the general secretary of ADI, Américo Ramos, it is due to reasons of political persecution already known by the population and by the leaders of the ‘new majority’.
“Myself, you know that I am here, thank God, because I was persecuted, humiliated, slandered. It’s the same thing they wanted to do to Patrice. If she doesn’t have professional interests, she doesn’t have a professional career, she doesn’t have a job in São Tomé, why would she be here? I have, but the? He is now going to leave his professional role and enter politics. He wants to help São Tomé and Príncipe before he does ADI, ”justified Américo Ramos.
The ADI leader was speaking during the rally in Boa Entrada, Lobata district, north of São Tomé, where the largest opposition party was today on a march (walk with supporters) through some towns.
“Our message is that São Tomé and Príncipe is in a very delicate phase, there has been a marked economic and social degradation of the country, so the motto and flag of ADI is to recover the country […] the ADI is ready, we believe that we are the solution because we have already shown it in the past and we are going to do everything possible so that when we are in government, we return to recover this country, we put it back on the development track”, Americo Ramos said.
The general secretary of ADI contradicted the speech of the president of the Government and candidate for re-election for the Liberation Movement of São Tomé and Príncipe/Social Democratic Party (MLSTP/PD) Jorge Bom Jesus, who in the campaign has presented actions and projects developed by the executive in the last four years.
“Three out of four people are fully aware that the country is in a badthe cost of living is very high, the social situation is terrible, the infrastructures are degraded, so the ADI’s message is a message that the population listens to well because the population has a memory of a recent past in which the ADI was four years [na governação] and he did a lot for this country”, said the ADI leader.
For Américo Ramos, the MLSTP/PSD “is trying to sell something that is not true, it is selling rotten fish because the MLSTP, PCD, Basta, MDFM and the entire company have been in government for these four years and the situation in the one the country is in right now is their fault.
“I don’t know how they manage to sell the idea that they want another four years to degrade the country even more. The people know, the people have all the proof that the MLSTP and the new majority have put the country in a very bad situation. There is no excuse for a pandemic, for covid, there is no excuse for war because the country received a lot of resources and, as we know, this country needs resources from abroad to implement public policies for the development of the country. The money they received was eaten and did nothing,” said Américo Ramos.
The ADI affirms that “it needs an absolute majority because it wants to govern this country with everyone, but it has to have legitimacy to carry out the reform.”
“We are saying that ADI is the solution, ADI wants an absolute majority to implement the reform because this country needs a reform. We know that this new majority clearly demonstrated that it was not capable of reforming the country because they were small patches, small amendments, each one pulling for their own interest and they could not do anything”, said the ADI general secretary.
In total, ten parties and a coalition enter today into the third day of campaigning for the legislative elections in São Tomé and Príncipe: Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe / Social Democratic Party (MLSTP/PSD); Independent Democratic Action (ADI); Enough; Democratic Movement Force for Change/Liberal Union (MDFM/UL); Union for Democracy and Development (UDD); CID-STP, Trade Union Movement for Broad Development (Muda); New Party; Social Democratic Movement/Green Party of São Tomé and Príncipe (MSD-PVSTP); Party of All Santomenses (PTOS) and the Independent Citizen Movement/Socialist Party/National Unity Party coalition.
In dispute is the election of 55 deputies to the National Assembly of São Tomé and Príncipeincluding two who for the first time will be elected from constituencies in Europe and Africa.
ADI was the party with the most votes in the 2018 elections, electing 25 deputies, followed by MLSTP/PSD, which won 23 seats.
The coalition then formed by the Democratic Convergence Party (PCD, the second opposition party), the UDD and the MDFM, was the third party with the most votes, obtaining five seats. The Movement of Independent Citizens of São Tomé and Príncipe/Socialist Party (MCI/PS) held two seats in parliament.
The MLSTP and the PCD-UDD-MDFM coalition formed the so-called ‘new majority’ and constituted a government, headed by Jorge Bom Jesus.
The day 25, also the regional government of Principe goes to votetwo from the Union for Change and Progress of Principe (UMPP), headed by the current president, Filipe Nascimento, and the Movimento Verde para o Desenvolvimento do Principe (MVDP) and MLSTP/PSD coalition, headed by Nestor Umbelina.
The 123,302 voters of Santo Tomé are still called to elect the presidents of the mayors.
Source: Observadora
