Unusual. IL voting is behind closed doors, bar closed and toilet conditioned

The doors of the chamber where the Liberal Initiative Convention (IL) takes place were forced to close this Sunday by order of the Bureau so that the voting process of the party’s national organs could begin electronically and sectoral motions could begin in person.

The unusual moment began with repeated warnings that all doors in the main hall of the Lisbon Congress Center would be closed, including those in the bar, with a warning that only certain bathrooms could be used during the voting process.

“Everyone immediately to the living room. Someone do me a favor and send a shout out. The bar doors are also closing, everything in the bar has to go inside.”” asked Nuno Fernandes, Vice-President of the Bureau, after repeated insistence.

The IL director described the entire voting process and added that members attending the Convention would receive an email with the four electronic ballots so that the Bureau would be available for technical support.

“Look at your ‘app’, at the form, we all open the ‘app’,” he asked.

After a break in the work to complete this form, the vote on the 12 sectoral motions will take place by air.

During this period, a group of members took the opportunity to sing happy birthday to someone present in the hall.

The closing speech of the not yet elected future leader of the Liberal Initiative ‘slipped’ to 5.30 pm, a delay of four hours compared to initially planned.

In the original program, the closing speech was scheduled for 1.30 pm, a time that was adjusted to 2.30 pm this morning due to work being moved from Saturday to Sunday.

The VII Convention of the Liberal Initiative ends today in the Congress Center of Lisbon, and the approximately 2,300 party members who registered at the main meeting will elect João Cotrim Figueiredo’s successor as the party’s leader, who went from one to one in the last parliamentary election. eight deputies went .

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 adviser José Cardoso compete for the presidency of the executive committee.