Liberal Democratic Order
Harmony | Merit | Sovereignty
Liberal Democratic Order
Harmony | Merit | Sovereignty
Uniting spirit with politics, giving soul to the homeland, founding the future upon dignity.
The Liberal Democratic Order was born in 2014, in the city of São Tomé, when 353 conscious citizens came together, moved by the patriotic unease of those who could no longer silently watch the country's institutional and moral decline. This founding gesture, seemingly discreet, translated into a revolutionary act: proposing an honest, visionary, and determined alternative to the old party order. Each founding signatory not only believed in a possible change — they believed in the need to rebuild the very national spirit.
Thus, the LDO was born — not as just another party among many, but as a force of historical consciousness. Its foundation marked the beginning of a silent and coherent march towards building a true political culture of excellence. The LDO was created to be more than a mere instrument for seizing power: it was born to educate, to elevate, and to reorganize the hope of those who know that a homeland only survives when it reconciles with its eternal values: merit, harmony, and sovereignty.
The birth of the LDO occurred within a context of profound political legitimacy crisis, where existing party models no longer offered either credibility or solutions. National politics had become a practice of survival, not of vision. The population, disillusioned, oscillated between apathy and cynicism. It was in this environment that the LDO decided to blossom — not as noisy opposition, but as an ethical and strategic counterpoint, investing in civic education and the silent organization of a new elite of consciousness.
Contextually, the LDO represents a synthesis between rupture and heritage. It breaks with the entrenched mediocrity but inherits the deepest dreams of São Toméan history: dignity, sovereignty, and identity. Its proposal emerges as a reunion between spirit and politics. In this sense, the context was not an obstacle but the justification. The crisis was the call, and the response was clear: to found a new political space where ethics is not a rhetorical ornament but the foundation of all authority.
The legal recognition of the LDO by Ruling No. 4/2014 of the Supreme/Constitutional Court was the institutional consecration of a profoundly popular and moral process. It was not a gift from the system — it was the confirmation of its openness to a genuinely renewing force. Upon its publication in the Official Gazette, the Order not only won the right to contest elections but also the right to assert itself as a legitimate voice of national regeneration.
The symbolic value of this recognition is immense. The LDO did not emerge by decree or convenience: it arose from the conviction and organization of citizens. Legality is, therefore, just one of its many legitimacies — the one that legally validates a project already ethically and socially consolidated. It marks the recognition, even if reluctant, by the old order of the presence of a new authority: the authority born of honesty, clarity, and public service.
The essence of the LDO cannot be reduced to a set of proposals or an electoral program. It is, above all, a worldview: a conception of the State centered on human elevation, merit as the criterion of authority, and harmony as the foundation of coexistence. Its doctrine is based on harmocracy — governance based on the harmony among diverse merits — and on meritocratic sovereignty, where power is legitimized by competence and commitment to the common good.
That is why the LDO presents itself as a spiritual, civic, and institutional mission. It represents the alliance between thought and action, between values and structures, between lucid idealism and constructive realism. Its essence is to be the bridge between the country we are and the country we can — and must — become. Every idea it proposes, every structure it designs, every word it affirms is rooted in the deep desire to make São Tomé and Príncipe a reference of ethics, strategy, and humanity for Africa and the world.