The discussion in the specialty of the proposed law that institutionalizes the local authorities suffered "an interregnum" for consultation of the leaders, as admitted by the leader of the parliamentary group of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Américo Kuononoka.
"It is not new, our great division is the question of gradualism and the question of gradualism is a position that we continue to defend, the need for simultaneity, we have not changed at this level", said Adalberto da Costa Júnior, who spoke to public radio , as a deputy to the National Assembly.
According to the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), "dialogue is necessary, absolutely indispensable".
"But, unfortunately, there is no such opening, at least it did not reach the level of the leaders, as far as we are concerned, there was no contact", he stressed.
The politician stressed that UNITA "has been putting permanent pressure" on the "absolute necessity" of not continuing to postpone this debate, because the law in question and the rest of the whole package were approved in April 2019, in general, the that "nothing justifies that two years later the issue has not been overcome".
In turn, the leader of the MPLA parliamentary bench, said that the proposed law has already been advanced for discussion in the specialty, but some divergences have caused an interruption in the debates.
"We stopped to consult our leaders, but the point is already scheduled, for sure that next month we will start with the discussions in the specialty, without a doubt," he said.
According to Américo Kuononoka, "the benches at this moment are consulting the parties' directions, and after receiving the guidelines, they will return to the specialty" for the conclusion of the municipal legislative package.
The first municipal elections in Angola, scheduled for 2020, did not take place, justified the Government, due to the lack of conditions for its implementation, namely the covid-19 pandemic and the failure to complete the approval of the municipal legislative package.
The mode of implementation of local authorities in Angola divides the MPLA, opposition political parties and civil society organizations, with the ruling party defending gradualism, that is, voting only in some municipalities to be defined by the National Assembly.
UNITA defends the simultaneous realization of autarchies in the 164 municipalities that make up the country.
In April 2019, on the occasion of the general approval of the proposed law on the institutionalization of local authorities, the then Minister of Territory Administration and State Reform, Adão de Almeida, reaffirmed the gradualism in the implementation of municipalities in the country, a process that foresaw "slow but solid".
Adão de Almeida stressed that in the Constitution of the Republic of Angola the institutionalization of local authorities obeys the principle of gradualism, emphasizing that the legislative proposal "envisages seeking to cover as much as possible of municipal realities".
According to the then holder of the portfolio of the Administration of Territory and State Reform, the third article of the proposed law contemplates small and large municipalities, more and less populous, with more and less revenue collection, the predominantly urban and the predominantly and other criteria.
