Vitor Aleixo has already assumed that he will defend the current president of the Quarteira Parish Council Telmo Machado Pinto as the PS candidate with the best positioning «to triumph in the next elections for the Chamber of Loulé», statements that led the Loulé PSD to ask for clarification.
The words of the current president of the Loulé municipality appear in a note sent this Saturday, August 9, to the newsrooms, as part of the inauguration of the bodies for the Loulé municipality of the Socialist Party, for which Vitor Aleixo was elected president with around 70% of the votes, leaving the opposite list, led by Abílio Sousa, with 30%.
In the same note, the mayor reinforced that Telmo Pinto «won with large majorities three successive elections for the Junta with the largest number of voters in the municipality of Loulé», considering him, therefore, «a politician of the new generation» with «notoriety wide from the Sea to the Mountains».
Telmo Pinto, current president of the Junta de Quarteira, elected by the PS, has been identified as a potential socialist candidate for the Chamber of Loulé for some time, having also been one of the supporters of the Loulé mayor in the municipal elections at the beginning of July. It is also not news that the candidate is Vítor Aleixo's favorite, despite the current mayor only publicly admitting it now.
After these statements, the PSD/Loulé Political Committee, in a statement, asked Vitor Aleixo and Telmo Pinto for clarification. The social democrats basically argue that, as mayors in office, Aleixo could not have disclosed his support and Telmo Pinto could not be a candidate, despite this being a common practice in all parties in previous elections.
«Does Vítor Aleixo intend to abdicate his mandate as mayor of Loulé and, if so, from when? With Telmo Machado Pinto officially announced by the president of the PS Council as a candidate, will Telmo Machado Pinto resign from his mandate as President of the Parish Council of Quarteira?", ask the social democrats, in a statement sent on Monday, 12 August .
In that same note, the PSD Loulé says it understands «the eagerness that the PS shows to present its candidates», but does not accept that «a president of a Junta officially abdicates his responsibilities towards those who elected him, and starts campaigning , using the resources of the Parish Council to do so».
«Good practices in terms of municipal management and separation of powers should dictate that Telmo Pinto suspend or even resign from his mandate, as he will already be officially running for one position and occupying another, and is no longer fit to be president de Junta", says the main opposition party in Loulé, adding that, in its opinion, Telmo Pinto "will hardly be able to fulfill his mandate as president of the Junta, defending the interests of the voters who trusted him with their vote, if you are thinking and acting with other interests, many of them antagonistic to the interests of those who elected him».
Contacted by Sul Informação, Telmo Pinto said that Vitor Aleixo's statements are "a personal opinion", and there has been no confirmation, to date, that he will be the PS candidate for the Chamber of Loulé.
«What I can say is that I am president of the Quarteira Council until 2025, that is the certainty I give», he stated to our newspaper.
Vitor Aleixo arrives, in 2025, at the end of a 12-year cycle as mayor of Loulé, and is therefore unable to run again.
Telmo Pinto is also at his term limit to run for president of the Quarteira Parish Council.
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