Africa-Press – Angola. The starting shot for the leadership race of the “Black Rooster” party was fired this Tuesday, 07, with the announcement of the candidacy of Massanga Savimbi, the son of the historic leader and founder, Jonas Savimbi, but within UNITA the watchword seems to be, for now, the normalization of the dispute for the position of president of the largest opposition party in Angola.
The current president, Adalberto Costa Júnior, who has led the party for five years, is naturally a candidate to continue leading UNITA, although both parties will only be able to formalize their candidacy on Wednesday the 8th, the day the candidacy submission period opens.
Ernesto Mulato, a founder of UNITA alongside Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, and current member of the Permanent Committee of the “Galo Negro” party, told Novo Jornal that multiple leadership candidacies “are normal”, as has happened in the past, which has been used to emphasize the democratization of this historic political force created in 1966.
“It’s a common practice within our party. UNITA has always had multiple candidates at its congresses,” Ernesto Mulato remarked, emphasizing that any member who meets the requirements to run for party leadership can do so.
“We’re not like those political parties where, when you talk about multiple candidates, it’s a headache,” added the former UNITA vice-president, clearly referencing the MPLA, emphasizing that multiple candidates deepen internal democracy.
UNITA MP Joaquim Nafoia also says that this announcement is part of the party’s democratic culture, where multiple candidacies have been not only accepted but encouraged.
“Since the congress that elected the former president of UNITA, Isaías Samakuva, after the death of the founding leader, UNITA has held its congresses with multiple candidates,” he said, stressing that any member who meets the requirements can run.
Political scientist Agostinho Sicato believes that this announcement, even though it concerns the son of the founder of UNITA, is not surprising and adds that if there were no multiple candidates, we would be facing a “democratic setback” in the largest opposition party, which is obliged to set an example.
“It could be a setback from a democratic point of view, because UNITA has accustomed society, for more than 20 years, to holding congresses with multiple candidates,” he stressed.
Political analyst Albino Pakisi believes that the announcement of Rafael Massanga Savimbi’s candidacy for party president brings “a breath of fresh air” within the organization, with a young man expressing this willingness, although the officialization stage is still pending.
“It’s not just because he’s the son of UNITA’s founding leader that young Rafael Massanga Savimbi has enough political experience within the party to run for the party’s leadership,” he emphasized, noting that even if he doesn’t defeat the current leader, he will be a potential candidate in future conclaves.
Please note that members interested in running for the presidency of UNITA, with a view to holding the XIV Ordinary Congress, must submit their candidacies to the mandates committee starting this Wednesday, October 8th.
The 2022 election results, the most robust ever, in which UNITA, within the United Patriotic Front (FPU), obtained 90 deputies, put Adalberto Costa Júnior in a privileged position to be the head of UNITA’s list in the 2027 election, but, to do so, he will have to defeat Massanga Savimbi.
In the first elections of 1992, with the founding leader of the party, Jonas Savimbi, UNITA elected 70 deputies, in 2008, with the former president Isaías Samakuva, the party obtained 16 deputies, in 2012, 32, in 2017, 51 and in 2022, with the current president, Adalberto Costa Júnior, the party rose to 90 parliamentarians.
The congress, which is held ordinarily every four years, is formally convened by the party president, “in compliance with the Party Statutes and Regulations”, after a favorable opinion from the Political Committee.
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