Former national advisor of the Liberal Initiative (IL) José Cardoso, who was one of the candidates for the presidency of the Executive Committee at the convention that elected Rui Rocha, in a message to party members appealed to “someone to have the courage to appeal to the Constitutional Court” because the rules of the Statutory Convention unveiled on Monday were something he called “the final blow to prevent IL members from revising anything in the statutes.”
Cardoso’s response, which received 4.3% of the votes in a bipolar convention between Rui Rocha and Carla Castro, was due to the introduction of the word “only” in Article 14, which concerns proposals for amendments, eliminations or additions to projects that make changes to the statutes. Something that the former national counsel says has a “clear purpose” to prevent changes to the current statutes. As it becomes impossible to propose changes to the Statutes article by article, this is limited to the articles, figures and paragraphs of the global amendment projects voted on at the beginning of the Statutory Convention, scheduled for July 2024.
Nuno Santos Fernandes, chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Council, states that a complaint to the Constitutional Court “is a deplorable political exploitation that contributes nothing to the important discussion on the statutes”, contacted by DN. And while he guarantees that the inclusion of the word “only” was intended to clarify the text of the rules of the Statutory Convention, he accuses José Cardoso of “misusing the clarification to now, with serious accusations, attack to launch the members. of the National Council”.
Speaking to DN, José Cardoso argued that IL members will “make fools of themselves” at the Statutory Convention because “in a divided party” the likelihood that any of the global statute amendment projects to be presented will receive two-thirds of the vote. requirements are reduced, making it likely that the current statutes will remain unchanged. One thing he says is the way the current leadership is avoiding setbacks that would be more than symbolic.
“They knew that with some relevant changes they would lose,” guarantees Member 443 of IL, who, when he was a member of the National Council, was one of the strongest defenders of the end of the inherent powers that give voting rights to all members of the Executive Committee. in the body that oversees its performance. When it was not clear that any candidate to succeed João Cotrim Figueiredo would receive more than half of the votes – Rui Rocha would end up with 51.7%, against 44% for Carla Castro and 4.3% for José Cardoso –, he proposed that there will be a second round between the two most voted candidates if none of them has more than 50%.
For Nuno Santos Fernandes, allowing proposals for amendments, deletions or additions to the current statutes would be “irresponsible” because “opening a hatch for an ad hoc specialty process would risk creating a patchwork without a systematic framework. “.
Source: DN
