[3][4] They had previously been suspended for attending a plenary session of the National Assembly, which the party boycotted, where they voted to dismiss three Supreme Court judges.
The Supreme Court ruled to hand over the plant to the Angolan businessman Melo Xavier, which "plunged Sao Tome and Principe into a political-institutional crisis.
"[3] Antonio Monteiros had previously "conquered the national food trade market with a special emphasis on rice",[3] and in 2009 gotten control over the Rosema brewery where he installed his brother Domingos as managing director.
Antonio Monteiros was until he defected the main donor of MLSTP and his patronage network in Caué was the reason they held that municipality in the 2014 local elections, as the only one.
[3] However, since the MLSTP has close relations to the other ex-liberation movements in Lusophone Africa, a political intervention against an Angolan businessman with MPLA patronage was unacceptable to a majority of the party and he got removed from the leadership.