Manuel Pereira da Silva "Manico" was elected by the Superior Council of the Judiciary, but the decision was the subject of a request to the Supreme Court of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
In the injunction, UNITA requested the suspension of the selection of Manuel Pereira da Silva by the Superior Council of the Judiciary, due to several irregularities registered in the curricular competition for the posts of president of CNE and president of the Provincial and Municipal Electoral Commissions.
In its reply, the Supreme Court argued that the injunction should not have been proposed by UNITA, given the fact that it was not part of the competition that approved candidate Manuel Pereira da Silva as president of CNE.
The leader of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior, however, considered the document of the court order presented on paper without the letterhead of the institution to be doubtful, as it lacked the seal of the institution and without the signature of the judge, which, he said, removes its credibility.
"The Supreme Court responded to us last week and did so in a strange way, which should not be the conduct of an organ of such responsibility," said Adalberto Costa Júnior, at the inauguration on Monday of the new "shadow government" of the party.
Adalberto Costa Júnior noted that the document carries only a "little initials" with no identifiable name.
"It is not known whether this leaf has a precedence of responsibility or not," he stressed.
In the middle of the challenge, the National Assembly made it known this Wednesday that it had rejected the requests of UNITA and four other independent members of the opposition against the inauguration of the new president of the National Electoral Commission.
The inauguration of Manuel Pereira da Silva is the second item on the agenda of the plenary session, but the decision is controversial and prompted an injunction by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which was not accepted by the court, and a request for the cancellation of the inauguration by the Human Rights Monitoring Working Group (GTMDH), which brings together 21 Angolan civil society organizations.
