Local elections 2024: MpD confirms Abraão Vicente Praia and bets on Armindo Luz for Ribeira Grande Santo Antão

In the list that was released at the end of the meeting of the National Political Commission, the MpD renews five of the municipal councils where it currently holds power, namely Paul, where the bet fell on Adilson Fernandes, Ribeira Grande Santo Antão with Armindo Luz, Tarrafal de São Nicolau whose candidate will be Neivo Araújo, Santa Catarina de Santiago Jacinto Horta and Santa Catarina do Fogo Evandro Monteiro.

In the remaining nine municipalities where the party leads the local authorities at the moment, it was decided to support the candidacies of the current mayors.

In the eight chambers where the party is currently in opposition, the bets fell on the current Minister of Culture, Abraão Vicente, for Praia, Domingos Mendes for Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Hipólito Gonçalves for São Domingos, Liver Gomes for Santa Cruz, Marcelo Correia for Tarrafal de Santiago, António Cardoso for São Filipe and Isidoro Gomes for Mosteiros.

The party's general secretary, Luís Carlos Silva, who presented the list to the press, spoke of a long process that had advances and setbacks and some degree of difficulty, highlighting that in these choices the party placed emphasis not on the candidates, but on the process , which was approached taking into account the principle of equality.

“We aimed to have a process that was maximum inclusive, a participatory process, a process that involved the entire MpD system so that we could generate the process and the best candidates and that also have a better support platform”, he maintained.

Luís Carlos Silva stressed that this is just another stage in a long process that began with the approval of the regulations for choosing candidates.

Among the determining criteria for choosing the candidates announced here, he pointed out the issue of acceptance, level of notoriety at the level of the respective municipalities but also political criteria, internal evaluation, the ability or not of a given candidate to have a support base that guarantees a better approach to elections.

“The objective is always to have the best candidate, who can build a better team and guarantee us the level of governance that the MpD aspires to. We understand that local power is an instrument that can accelerate the development process and, therefore, we want municipalities and territories to be governed by people with recognized notoriety, but also people with recognized management capacity”, explained.

The MpD spokesperson highlighted that it is the party's understanding that the list released today meets its objectives and delivers the best candidates that the party can have in the next elections.

Regarding changes, he said that the party wanted to renew by introducing “some youth” into the process.

“There are presidents who had already been in office for a few years and in a context of understanding, in a context of consensus, it was possible to generate alternation and renewal in these municipal chambers”, he stressed.

This year's local elections do not have a date yet. However, the National Elections Commission (CNE) points to November as the best time to do so.