Luanda – Ruling MPLA party’s leader João Lourenço formalised Wednesday his re-candidature for the party’s leadership, ahead of the Ordinary Congress of this political organisation set for December 2021.
The formalisation process was made through the president’s aide, Pedro Neto, who presented the subscriptions in support for João Lourenço’s candidacy from the country’s 18 provinces, in a total of 21, 750 signatures.
We really exceeded the required number of 100 signatures per province, said Pedro Neto, adding that this owed to the party’s experience accumulated over the years,
as the collection of signatures was done in a record period of seven days.
Apart from João Lourenço, the party also knew another candidate who expressed intention to run for the top job. The engineer António Venâncio said that he would formalise his candidature as soon as possible.
The 8th Ordinary Congress of the MPLA is scheduled to take place on 9-11 December this year.
João Lourenço took over from José Eduardo dos Santos as MPLA leader during the VI Extraordinary Congress held in September 2018, in Luanda.
He was elected with 98.58 percent of the vote.
On February 3, 2017 during the MPLA’s III Ordinary Meeting, he was officially announced head of the party’s list for 2017 elections, having become the third President of the Republic of Angola.
João Lourenço is graduated in History and held several posts in the party and in the Angolan State.
He was also member of People’s Assembly 1984 – 1992, leader of the ruling MPLA party’s Parliamentary Group (1993-1998) and first deputy-Speaker of National Assembly (2003-2014).
Source: Angola Press News Agency