The announced candidate for leadership of IL Rui Rocha will propose to the National Council that the convention does not take place until January, a month later than expected, so that the time is not a limitation for those who want to participate.
It was announced on Sunday that elections to the Liberal Initiative (IL) executive committee will be pushed forward and that President João Cotrim Figueiredo will not run for the position again, a race to which Deputy Rui Rocha has already appeared.
“The power to determine the election calendar belongs to the National Council and I will of course respect the decision that can be taken in the right place. In any case, I believe that the party benefits enormously from the democratic debate and the clear discussion of alternatives “, justified, in a statement to the agency Lusa.
Rui Rocha’s proposal is “to extend this calendar, move the elections to January and give everyone who is available the chance to continue without time being limited”.
The 24th National Council was convened on November 6 in Coimbra, when the date and rules of procedure of the VIIth National Convention of IL will be approved.
After the IL leader’s decision was announced, Rui Rocha announced in a statement to the Lusa agency his candidacy for the leadership of the party, under the slogan “Liberalism for all”.
The deputy plans to “continue the current success of IL and popularize liberalism, affirming liberal ideas and values with conviction and humility to transform Portugal into a more prosperous, fairer and freer country”.
On Sunday, Cotrim Figueiredo assured in statements to the Lusa agency that the decision to bring forward elections without a re-candidate was not due to internal problems, but to an “objective political analysis”, making it clear that he would be a deputy after leaving the pipe.
The VII National Convention is scheduled for December, and before these early elections to the executive committee were announced this Tuesday, it would only elect the members of the National Council, the Jurisdiction Council and the Board of Trustees as the calendars had been delayed.
At the last convention, in December 2021, João Cotrim Figueiredo’s sole list in the IL’s executive committee was elected with 94% of the vote, so the president was re-elected for another term ahead of liberal destinations.
On December 8, 2019, at the great meeting in Pombal in which he was elected for the first term, Cotrim Figueiredo, also in a single candidacy, subsequently collected 96% of the vote at the party’s III National Convention.
Cotrim Figueiredo was IL’s first elected deputy, in 2019, then as a single deputy, with in this year’s snap parliamentary elections, the party managed to go from one to eight deputies, becoming the fourth political force.
Source: DN
