Celmira Sacramento

Celmira Sacramento
Sacramento in 2023
President of the National Assembly of São Tomé and Príncipe
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 November 2022
PresidentCarlos Vila Nova
Preceded byDelfim Neves
Personal details
Born1975 (age 49–50)
Political partyIndependent Democratic Action (ADI)
OccupationPolitician

Celmira de Almeida do Sacramento dos Santos Lourenço (born 1975) is a Santomean politician who has been speaker of the National Assembly since November 2022.

Education

Sacramento has a degree in biology.[1]

Career

Sacramento with Vladimir Putin's close associate Vyacheslav Volodin in Moscow, Russia, 20 March 2023

Sacramento was elected to the National Assembly as the member for the Mé-Zóchi District in 2010, and subsequently selected in 2014, 2018, and 2022.[1] From 2014 to 2018, she was president of the Network of Women Parliamentarians, and from 2018 to 2022 she led the third commission of the CPLP parliamentary assembly.[1] After the 2022 election, she was one of eight women elected to the 55 member parliament.[2] She was part of a group that lobbied for the approval of a parity law that came into effect on 19 November 2022, with a target of 40% women set for the next election.[3]

Sacramento was elected vice president of the Independent Democratic Action party in October 2020, under president Patrice Trovoada.[4] The party won the 2022 legislative elections, with Trovoada elected Prime Minister.[5]

Sacramento was elected president of the National Assembly on 8 November 2022 with 52 votes in favour and three abstentions.[1] She is the second woman to hold the role after poet Alda Neves da Graça do Espírito Santo (1980-1991),[5] and the first democratically elected to the role.[1] Upon her election, she said a key challenge of her mandate was the "consensual revision of the Constitution" in order to reform the Assembly.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Medeiros, Oscar (November 8, 2022). "Celmira Sacramento, primeira mulher eleita presidente do Parlamento são-tomense" (in Portuguese). VOA. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Celmira Sacramento quer revisão consensual da Constituição". dw.com. November 8, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  3. ^ Carlos, Maximino (November 8, 2022). "São Tomé e Príncipe : Celmira Sacramento é a nova presidente do Parlamento" (in Portuguese). RFI. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  4. ^ "Former São Toméan prime minister elected opposition leader". Economist Intelligence. October 8, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Addamah, Steven (November 8, 2022). "Election of the new speaker of the Sao Tome parliament marks beginning of the new legislature". MedaFrica. Retrieved April 24, 2023.