The PSD will exclude from its candidate lists for deputies for the next parliamentary elections anyone who has been “initially convicted, pronounced” or for whom there is “strong evidence” of committing a crime against the state.
This is one of the criteria approved by the National Political Commission (CPN), which met last week, to draw up the lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections on March 10, which were unveiled on Monday by Jornal de Notícias and to which Lusa had access.
“The ethical dimension is no less for the PSD. In full respect of the presumption of innocence and the separation of powers, we understand that there is an ethical dimension that must be taken into account.”PSD Secretary General Hugo Soares explained in a statement to Lusa.
The PSD leader specified that these criteria apply “to convictions and final charges for acts committed in the exercise of public functions.”
“Ethically, situations will always be evaluated,” he added.
Thus, in the approved criteria, there is a chapter dedicated to “ethical requirements”, according to which anyone who “has been initially convicted, has been convicted or has been imposed coercive measures depriving him of his liberty due to the existence of strong evidence of committing a crime against the state, including crimes against the rule of law or crimes committed in the exercise of public functions.”
Candidates for deputies will be required to make a “pledge of honor” that they will suspend their mandate if any of these situations arise during the performance of their duties “until the case is closed or until a court decision of acquittal, non-indictment or revocation or extinction of the coercive measures which respectively entail deprivation of liberty”.
This honorary commitment will also include the guarantee of renouncing “the professional representation of private, private or social, individual or collective interests before public entities at national, regional or local level”.
Candidates for deputies also undertake to respect the Code of Conduct for Deputies and the PSD’s future Rules on Ethics and Appointment of Political Positions, which were approved by Congress on November 25 and have yet to be drafted.
In the approved deliberation, the CPN defined that the proposed lists to be submitted to the National Council “must respect the spirit and general guidelines contained in the recent legal deliberation of the PSD National Congress of November 25, 2023, which was approved by a very large majority, namely with regard to the role of the various authorities in the process of drawing up the lists”.
In other words, although the new statutes will not yet be in force when the list of PSD delegates is approved, this CPN council intends to serve as a guideline to respect the future rule of a maximum quota for management when choosing candidates for alternates (maximum two-thirds of the total).
Until now, no limit had been defined in the PSD statutes for the choice of candidates by the CPN, leaving this decision to the discretion of each management, which in practice could impose only the party leaders or all candidates.
As the president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, announced last week in an interview with SIC, the criteria approved by the CPN include a proposal for inclusion in the lists of independent personalities “with recognized competence, personal, political or professional merits”.
When drawing up the lists, the management undertakes “to consider a balanced composition of the Parliamentary Group”, covering the different areas of Parliament’s sectoral specialization, and “to comply with gender representation and ensure an adequate age distribution of candidates”, as well as “promoting adequate personal and generative renewal of the lists of candidates for deputies”.
The deliberation also includes an honorary obligation for future PSD deputies to respect voting discipline on matters such as the government program, in case it is voted on, the state budget and stability program, strengthened value laws, motions of censure and confidence, referendum initiatives or “all others to be defined in a plenary meeting of the Parliamentary Group”.
“Without prejudice to the right to differ in matters of conscience, candidates for deputies must also undertake that, whenever issues considered relevant to national politics are at stake, they will be substituted, under the terms of the rules, to ensure that the position of the party at the time of voting,” the CPN decision also states.
Candidates for alternates “must also undertake to resign their mandate in the event of a persistent divergence between the general guidelines of the Parliamentary Group and their individual positions”.
Source: DN
