Africa-Press – Angola. Angola goes to elections for the fifth time. The count began in 1992 and represented the climax of political opening in the country, with the end of a one-party existence.
Thirty years later, behold, the process of change gives way to 2022, for the popular choice that confirms the consolidation of democracy. The official start of the electoral campaign intermediates a set of actions and procedures linked to the elections, which will be sealed on the 24th of August, with the deposition of the vote in the ballot box.
In the starting places, political parties and their respective heads-of-list are positioned for the race that leads to governance. It is also a dispute, although it takes place in the democratic field. A confrontation of ideas and government projects, between competitors, of course, that will uncover, for popular scrutiny, what Angolans can expect from those who propose to run the country of more than 33 million inhabitants.
It is, therefore, time for the parties and heads of the list to show, more openly, to the 14,399,391 Angolans qualified to vote, the proposals for governance; it is an opportunity to wield the ideas they bring to move the country forward. In fact, this is a partisan competition whose value is inestimable, but which, for the achievement of the goal – victory at the polls, obviously – should not be worth everything. In fact, the Electoral Campaign Law is there precisely to guide and even discipline the contestants. In fact, there are rules in all processes, as there are in life, in living together in society.
After all, limits abound that should not be crossed. By imposition of the Law or even by moral and ethical imperatives, to prevent discharges of conscience. In a political campaign, such landmarks need to be placed, even if it is at the initiative of the competitor. And civics compels us to do so. It is not just the voter that is expected of exemplary behavior. From the candidate, from the party, from the politician, decency is also wanted. From above must come the good examples.
So, the signal for the start is given. It remains for the parties and heads of the list to use arguments that find the approval of voters as the ones that best meet their aspirations. As for the voting population – it is made up of all of us, in fact – there is the task of choosing, which must be responsible and made in conscience. It would be great if the option – the voter’s – always fell to the candidate and the party that offers more guarantees of materialization of the projects. But let’s wait!
Therefore, contestants and voters, to their seats, for this noble exercise of democracy and citizenship. The fate of the country is in your hands!
A long Road Already Trodden
The process that will lead to the elections on the 24th of August was born more than three decades ago, in a series of events that put an end to the one-party system and rolled out the red carpet for the democratic opening. The first multiparty elections were marked as the corollary of the initial aspirations for political change. The environment of freedom that we breathe today is, therefore, the consolidation of a long path, of ups and downs, of protrusions and indentations, natural in countries that have overcome different and difficult stages, from the conquest of self-determination, to internal pacification and to the guarantees of citizens’ freedoms and rights.
For history, to always be remembered, are the milestones of democratic opening in the country. Now, the moments are the last for the preparation of the suffrage of the 24th of August, whose unofficial registration started on the 23rd of September 2021 and was concluded in April of this year. Twelve countries were covered. On the 3rd of June, a Friday, the President of the Republic called for elections, after considering that the conditions had been created. Three days later, on the 6th of June, the Presidential Decree calling the elections began to take effect. From here, the count of twenty days was given for parties and coalition of parties to formalize, with the Constitutional Court (TC), the candidacy. By the time the elections were called, thirteen party emblems had been recognized: MPLA, UNITA, PRS, FNLA, APN, PHA, PDP-ANA, PALMA, PPA, PADDA-AP and PNSA.
The MPLA, the ruling party, was the first to formalize its candidacy with the TC. It happened on the 8th of June. The FNLA and the Humanist Party of Angola (PHA) closed the process on 21 June.
Ten days after the call for elections, the National Electoral Commission delivered to the TC the Computer File of Senior Citizens, which it received from the Ministry of Territory Administration, after completing the official electoral registration. The document shows
tra that are entitled to vote, on August 24, 14,399,391 voters, in addition to other statistical data (see next article).
Eight political emblems – of the eleven initially planned, in light of the number of legalized parties and coalitions, at the time the elections were called – had their candidacy for the elections approved by the TC. On July 5th, the deadline for correcting shortcomings – the so-called “period to supply irregularities” – in the process ended. UNITA, P-NJANGO, APN, PHA and the CASA-CE coalition delivered the missing documents, necessary to correct the shortcomings identified in the application.
The Electoral Law obliges parties and coalitions to have a maximum of 355 candidates for deputies (220 effectives and 135 substitutes), in a group that includes 130 effectives and up to 45 substitutes for the National Circle (CN) and 90 effectives and the same number of substitutes for the 18 Provincial Circles (CP). The Law also obliges each political party or coalition to run in all 19 established constituencies.
On Saturday, 9 July, the eight political emblems were confirmed as candidates for the general elections on 24 August. Three days later, the National Electoral Commission received from the Constitutional Court (TC) the definitive list of parties and coalitions for the election, after the verification and validation of the candidacies, since there was no request for a challenge.
The day before, on Monday, July 11, a Presidential Decree had defined the amount of 1,112,050,000 (one thousand, one hundred and twelve million and fifty thousand) kwanzas for public funding of the electoral campaign. Therefore, the contestants only needed to go out looking for the vote.
AT THE TIME OF CHOOSING
The order in the Ballot
The parties and coalition competing in the elections of the 24th of the month were placed on the ballot according to a draw held on Wednesday, 13 July, by the National Electoral Commission (CNE).
Manuel Pereira da Silva, president of the CNE, said that the draw is one of the most important stages of the electoral process, as it defines the position of the contestants in the Voting Ballot. On the meaning of the choice, he explained that it was not a game of luck or chance, but a technical operation that allowed the indication of the position of the political parties in the Voting Bulletin and also in the programming grids of the airtime on Television and Radio.
The draw complies with the principle of probability, randomness, objectivity, transparency and was carried out in an impartial and impartial manner, to allow the choice and positioning of each competitor in the Voting Ballot based on the law and on proven scientific methods, clarified
The raffle targets expressed their satisfaction with the positioning in the ballot paper and in the programming schedule of the television and radio airtime.
Data And Numbers
In these elections, 14,399,391 voters are eligible to vote, according to data from the computer file of older citizens, four million were registered without an Identity Card and another four million through the Official Electoral Registry
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