The proposal of the candidate for the leadership of IL José Cardoso, who intended to include in the Rules of Procedure the possibility of a second round, was not allowed for discussion this Saturday, a decision of the Board of Directors and ratified by the Convention.
The Convention ratified the Bureau’s decision of non-admission by 779 votes in favour, 133 against and 176 abstentions.
The President of the Board of the National Council, Mariana Leitão, explained that this body had unanimously decided to reject José Cardoso’s application, because it violated the statutes that do not allow “the rules to be in the middle of the game be changed”.
On the other hand, the Bureau asked the Judiciary Council for an opinion to validate this decision, which was confirmed.
The Liberal leader warned that if a procedure is adopted that violates the statutes, the Convention could be challenged, including the elections that take place on Sunday.
However, since the decisions of the board of directors can always be appealed to the convention, the plenary of the magna assembly voted to ratify this decision to reject José Cardoso’s application.
Mariana Leitão recalled that the Rules of Procedure of the Convention were approved in November in a long National Council and that this second round proposal had already been rejected on that occasion.
“There will be a revision of the statutes, today we must comply with the statutes and respect for the rules is the fundamental principle of liberalism,” he defended.
Following the decision of the main meeting, the lead leader José Cardoso expressed regret that the convention vote had taken place before he could present his arguments and criticized the board of directors for taking a position on this issue, saying that “it is confusing that the arbitrator takes broken”.
“The second round guarantees the debate of ideas, which is the reason for the existence of the IL, without being ‘à la’ PSD or ‘à la PS’, without the same rice as usual. An election will only be legitimized by more than 50 votes. % of the vote, I hope I’m not right in half a year,” he said.
“Who’s afraid of this second round? Not me,” he assured.
Two minutes to file motions
Member Válter Neves Ferreira took the stage to criticize the fact that proposers only have two minutes to submit them.
“We haven’t done enough washing of the dirty linen of actions we’ve seen in recent weeks, we were surprised yesterday, less than 24 hours after entering this room, with an email stating that the proponents of the motions only had two minutes to present them,” he lamented. .
The member compared this “act of charity” to the “125 euros of the PS” and said that “it should shame those who support it and those who had the guts to subscribe to it”.
Moments later, Cuban member Alberto Pérez called for more party members “less applause and more work”.
“The Portuguese are going to hold us accountable because Portugal is at a turning point, a point where there is no going back and the danger of socialism can be imposed. That is why I am asking you all to demonstrate in this room that liberal democracy works. ” , he said, in one of the most acclaimed interventions in this period so far.
The 7th Liberal Initiative Convention is taking place this weekend in Lisbon’s Congress Center, and the approximately 2,300 party members who registered for the main meeting will elect João Cotrim Figueiredo’s successor as leader of the party, which has risen from one to one in recent parliamentary elections. eight deputies.
In the first electoral convention in IL’s history (established in 2017), Rui Rocha and Carla Castro, both delegates and members of the outgoing board, and National Councilor José Cardoso compete for the presidency of the executive committee.
Source: DN
