Members of the Angolan civil society announced today, in Luanda, that they will participate in the general elections in Angola, scheduled for August 24, pointing out “numerous irregularities in the preparation of the electoral process”.
At a press conference, the group representing members of Angolan civil society affirmed “the absence of legitimate and credible conditions that guarantee a free, fair and transparent electoral process.”
Laurinda Gouveia, an Angolan activist who was part of the well-known 15+2 process in 2015, read the manifesto, pointing out as one of the irregularities the hiring of the Spanish company Indra, supplier of computer equipment for the Angolan general elections, proposing the cancellation of the contest for their hiring and withdrawal from the electoral process, in addition to the “defects of the current Organic Law on Elections, which renders municipal scrutiny null and void and the lack of establishment of summary records at the polling stations”.
Among other complaints, representatives of the Angolan civil society point out the unequal treatment of the parties by the public media and the existence of deceased persons in the electoral register.
In that sense, “members of civil society propose not to hold the general elections on the day and month set by the President of the Republic, that is, August 24, 2022.”
For his part, the activist Adolfo Campos, from the Angolan Revolutionary Movement, stated that “the elections are not being transparent for Angolans.”
“And we do not need to have another five years of suffering, we as a civil society are here to ask that the 2022 general elections be annulled and that a new work or operation methodology be reaffirmed for the 2022 general elections, because the company Indra does not gives us confidence and the MPLA [Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, partido no poder] was very involved in that electoral registry,” said Adolfo Campos.
Criticism was also directed at the opposition political parties, which along with the ruling party “insist on holding elections that are not fair.”
“We understand that all the political parties that are going to stand in these 2022 general elections are in collusion with the suffering of the Angolan people and we will not allow it, as young people. We need a fair and transparent Angola, these elections have to be fair and transparent”, he reaffirmed.
Osvaldo Caholo, an activist who in 2015 was also arrested and tried in the process known as 15+2, warned that “peace and stability do not depend on political parties and much less on that muzzled civil society, which is actually among the politicians”. political parties, they are co-opted and enter into agreements”.
“We are going to witness here, for the first time, the emergence of an independent civil society, which does not follow any party. That civil society will be able to define the Angolan theater of operations in recent times”, he said.
“I say that all the living forces, all the sensitivities, including this civil society, are of the utmost importance in the role of peace and stability, because politicians are going to the elections and we will surely challenge this electoral act,” he added.
The group announced a march on August 17, in response to the challenge request that will be presented before the Constitutional Court next Tuesday, expressing confidence in a positive response to their action, otherwise they will resort to the rights of demonstration.
Laurinda Gouveia criticized the opposition political parties: “Even seeing the situation in which the people find themselves, they insist on getting ahead, they cannot take a coherent position for the benefit of the Angolan people”.
“We are tired of being in the wake of political parties, we do not want to be considered masses, we are people, we are people, we are the ones who have to legitimize our rulers,” he stressed.
Asked why they are now going to present this challenge request a few days before the elections, Adolfo Campos replied that the Angolans are a people who understand “waiting”.
“We wait! The laws were made unfairly, we know that the opposition parties could not oppose the same laws, because the party in power has an absolute majority (…). We hope that the political parties can solve the problem in the political sphere, but we saw that there was no consensus and congregation on the same laws and that led us to understand that the political parties could oppose it in another way, not even going to the elections, but We saw that this is not the opposition, even talking about fraud, they are campaigning every day and that has led us to take a position as civil society, not to accept the 2022 elections,” he said.
The press conference was held this morning at 10:00 am in the Cazenga neighborhood, where young people blocked a street with tables to speak with journalists.
The traffic impediment provoked, at the end of the activity, the intervention of the police who questioned the young people about the reasons for the blockade, with no other consequences.
Source: TSF
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