Elections in Angola: less than 10% of Angolans in Portugal are eligible to vote
The Angolan ambassador to Portugal said today that the number of Angolans who will be able to vote in Portugal is around 7,600, representing less than 10% of the total of these emigrants in Portugal.
“The number of Angolans registered to vote in Portugal is around 6,000 in Lisbon and 1,600 in Porto, less than 10% of the total number of Angolans living in Portugal, whose number is around 80,000”, said Carlos Alberto Fonseca, at a press conference today in Lisbon.
At the meeting with a journalist, which will be used for Wednesday’s elections, Ambassador 10% said that the value of less departure is symbolic, but it is a starting point, and in the coming years there will be more people participating in the initiatives”.
Angolans residing in Portugal who have made the registration and conditions will exercise their right to vote between 07:00 and 17:00 at the Angolan consulates in Lisbon and Porto, which “will be open only for this purpose” .
“It is the first time that there will be a vote of non-foreign Angolans, corresponding to a promise of the State of State during a visit to Portugal, in which the Angolans2018 will be able to fulfill this dream that is to choose their representatives for a National and the legitimate heads representing the Angolan people”, added the ambassador.
At the meeting, Carlos Alberto Fonseca who appears from the polling station in Lisbon and as three polling stations in Porto will close at 17:00, if there is a line, as ballot boxes will remain available for those who wait.
“The opening is at 7 am until 5 pm, and as provided for by a law, arriving at the time of the final vote, the right to exercise this right will not be restricted; everyone had voted within the period given the influence, but whoever is in line to exercise their right to vote”, stressed the ambassador.
Asked about the difference in Portugal in which there is a point tolerance for voting, as in Angola, Carlos Alberto da Fonseca said that it is natural that this happens because it is different from Angola or it is not strange.
“We are in our own countries, here the Angolans exercise themselves, the day of the vote is not a natural holiday or point tolerance, they are on the Portuguese calendar, it is one that they will have to do with, how to organize their lives to be able to exercise and exercise their best conditions to participate in their lives, Alberto Fonseca said that “the conditions created are better for exercising citizenship”.
Asked about the possibility of instability following the choices, the ambassador devalued the receptions by many analysts.
“Whenever the first ones appeared in Angola, being the first ones in which after the tragedy still, a destructive war, when a party did not occur before the results and resumed the war, after that there were four more incidents and it was seen that it always ventured The idea that, or that during, or before, there will be, but naturally it doesn’t happen after us, you see, democracy has its rules and that should be that for everyone”, said Carlos Alberto Fonseca. concluding that “accepting democracy is accepted when it loses, not accepted when it wins, and accepting when it loses”.
More than 14 million Angolans, including those residing abroad, are eligible to vote on 24 August, which will be the fifth election in Angola’s history.
The 220 members of the Angolan National Assembly are elected by two methods: 130 members proportionally to the so-called national circle, and the remaining 90 members are reserved for each of the 18 provinces of Angola, using the d’Hondt method and that each elects five parliamentarians.