Africa-Press – Angola. UNITA president Adalberto Costa Júnior considered the Constitutional Court (TC) ruling to be a threshold dismissal of José Pedro Kachiungo’s requests. “All of José Pedro’s claims were denied by the court,” said the UNITA leader in reaction to the TC ruling.
José Pedro Kachiungo appealed to the TC against the annulment of three party decisions, including the termination of membership.
Exclusively to NJ, a senior member of UNITA corroborated with the party leader, stating that Deliberation No. 01/01/2024, of the Permanent Committee of the UNITA Political Commission, prevails ‘ipsis verbis’, that is, José Pedro Kachiungo is not a member of the Black Rooster’s Political Commission and, if he wanted to, “he is not qualified to run for the position of president of the party, at the XIV Congress.
“José Pedro is a grassroots activist, as was made clear in Resolution No. 01/02/2024, and is a member of the party with the right to an active and passive vote, although his concern is only and solely the passive vote, that is, being voted for”, says the source.
According to the senior UNITA member, the militant in question must comply with the duties of a member, for example paying dues in full.
For the source, the TC ruling was an unnecessary and quite heavy political defeat for José Pedro Kachiungo.
According to the source, both the preventive suspension and the disciplinary proceedings instituted are legitimate and have binding force, and the Constitutional Court does not “put its hand in someone else’s business”, so it could not do anything, even if it wanted to, the dispute had already been resolved internally by the Standing Committee of the Political Commission, through Deliberation No. 01/01/2024.
“It is not acceptable, from the point of view of the UNITA Statutes and the Angolan Legal System, to proceed with the claim for reinstatement of a member of the Political Commission, because José Pedro did not renew his mandate at the 13th Congress”, the source clarified.
“Incidentally, José Pedro was not a delegate to the 13th Congress, due to preventive suspension. Therefore, his status as a retiring member of the Political Committee, at the time of the 13th Congress, does not grant him special rights, since the renewal of a mandate in UNITA does not operate automatically, nor outside of congresses”, he reinforced.
However, the NJ tried, without success, to contact José Pedro Kachiungo, but, in a note published on social media, he declared that he was satisfied with the ruling.
“The Constitutional Court acknowledged that I was the victim of unfair sanctions aimed at preventing my participation in the party congress. Despite this, UNITA corrected the errors and restored my civic and political rights. I remain a loyal activist committed to democracy and the unity of the party,” the politician wrote on his social media.
TC didn’t give anyone any reason
Invited to analyze the TC ruling, jurist Frederico Batalha understands that the Constitutional Court “did not give reason to anyone”, for whom the TC concluded, after analyzing the facts and subsuming them to the applicable legal standards, that the effects sought, before the court, by the applicant were already achieved within the scope of the intra-party relationship.
“Hence the TC declared the controversial material relationship extinguished, since the essence of the applicant’s claims is already available in its legal sphere”, he explained.
Regarding the possibility of reinstatement as a member of the Political Committee and, consequently, running for the party presidency, although the TC has not spoken out, considering that the results of the last UNITA Congress are in its possession and have already been noted, what the party says is valid when it recognizes that the militant has resumed the full extent of his political-party rights.
José Rodrigues, another jurist, is of the opinion that the plaintiff, when suing UNITA in that case, sought to recover political rights that had been illegally taken away from him by processes tainted by statutory defects that prevented the right to political participation in that formation.
“There was a violation of the Statutes and constitutional norms and, having exhausted the admissible remedies, the applicant came to file the present action”, he observed.
Who can be president of UNITA?
Among other requirements, according to UNITA’s statutes (article 13), for election to the position of president of that political party, the following are required:
a) Have Angolan nationality by origin and do not have another nationality;
b) Have at least 15 years of uninterrupted, consistent and irreproachable militancy;
c) Have political and moral authority;
d) Have mastery of the Party’s political-ideological line;
e) Be a member of the Political Committee;
f) Have proven good political, moral and civic conduct;
g) Be accepted by the Party’s bases;
h) Gather the number of signatures corresponding to a minimum of 20% and a maximum of 33% of the effective members of the Political Committee, as well as a minimum of 1000 (one thousand) signatures of Party members, in full enjoyment of their rights, with a minimum of 50 signatures per province, with the member having to subscribe to only one list.
3. The 15 years of uninterrupted, consistent and irreproachable militancy are the last 15 years at the date of submission of the application.
Kachiungo, the ‘defeated’ of Samakuva
José Pedro Kachiungo competed with Isaías Samakuva for the leadership of UNITA at the 11th Congress in 2011.
Isaías Samakuva defeated the ‘newest’ militant Kachiungo, having been reelected with 85.6% of the votes, against 11% for his rival.
The results revealed that, of the 1,143 registered voters, 1,013 delegates voted. Isaías Samakuva received 868 votes, compared to just 112 for José Pedro Kachiungo.
At the time, Kachiungo presented himself as an opponent of Samakuva, after historical figures of the party, such as Abel Chivukuvuku and Paulo Lukamba Gato – who were linked to the so-called Reflection Group – decided not to move forward.
At the time, the Reflection Group accused Samakuva of trying to maintain his leadership of UNITA by evading statutory requirements. After disciplinary proceedings were instituted, but shelved, all the protesters stopped criticizing the leader. Gato supported him, and Chivukuvuku remained silent.
Despite being a member of the United Patriotic Front, created during the 2022 elections and led by the largest opposition party, UNITA, whose motto is the alternation of power, Abel Chivukukuvu is no longer a member of that party, and is the leader of the newest political party legalized by the Constitutional Court last year, PRA-JA Servir Angola.
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