The position of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) was presented this Wednesday by the leader of its parliamentary group, Liberty Chiaka, at a press conference, recalling that Indra was ordered by the Spanish tax authorities to pay a fine of three million euros "for bills that he was unable to justify from the 2012 [Angolan general] elections".
"We will prove that such a company or group of companies will not solve a concrete problem and provide a technological solution designed and developed by itself", he said.
According to Liberty Chiaka, the solution is already pre-defined by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) "and the contracted company will only serve as a front man, whitewash pre-ordered acts and act as a simple agent for purchasing items that it does not produce, such as plastic to serve as ballot boxes, cardboard booths, ink bottles, 'tablets' and bundles of papers in the form of ballot papers and electoral registers".
On Thursday, the National Assembly will vote on two requests submitted by the UNITA parliamentary group, the first to immediately constitute an eventual commission to monitor step by step the good organization of the elections, and the second to hold a parliamentary hearing for the president. the CNE or to the CNE plenary by one of the specialized committees of the parliament.
"The purpose of the dialogue is to gather information, clear up doubts, allay suspicions and build trust, all with the aim of preventing conflicts and ensuring the transparency of the process," he said.
The leader of the parliamentary group expressed his party's willingness to offer suggestions to the CNE on how everyone can work together to "ensure transparency and strengthen citizens' confidence in the electoral process".
Speaking to Lusa on Tuesday, Indra's international director for electoral processes, Eduardo Tejerina González, said that there are no complaints or documentation to support UNITA's accusations, stressing that the company follows the CNE guidelines and what is being stipulated in the specifications.
Liberty Chiaka presented this Wednesday as one of the reasons for contesting this tender the identity of the selected company, stressing the contradiction of information, when the CNE says that the candidate was Indra and the same, on its website, advances that it competed one of its associates, Minsait.
"Who is telling the truth, the CNE or Indra? This detail about the identity of the contestant type by winner is very important and has an impact on the transparency of the contest", he considered.
According to the deputy, after being sanctioned by the Spanish tax authorities, in 2018, Indra carried out a restructuring of its business, having created a new business group in the area of information technologies in 2019.
"Indra left the election business and started to focus on the large markets for businesses related to aerospace defense and transport. The technology business for the areas of energy, financial services, cybersecurity, digital transformation and public administration, which includes elections, became the responsibility of the new group, Minsait", he said.
According to Liberty Chiaka, taking into account that Minsait was created about three years ago, this condition does not meet the criterion required by the CNE for experience in supplying and providing services in countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for more than ten years.
This criterion, which seems to have been established to exclude other competitors, the deputy continued, "also excludes Minsait".
"Other reasons we will detail and prove in court, to support the challenge, have to do with the suitability of the competing company, the transparency of the tender, the object of the tender and with the compliance by the CNE with the legislation regulating the acts it practiced, including legislation about its own organization and functioning", he underlined.
Eduardo Tejerina González also said that the entire process "is closely monitored by the CNE and election observers", as happened in 2017 (the last year of elections in Angola) "and no one spoke of irregularities", adding that Indra has repeated electoral processes in countries that even "change their political color".
"If there was suspicion of fraud and the political color of the government changes, would they want to collaborate with Indra again if they thought we had done something irregular?", he asked.
The official stressed that the company is involved in "very transparent, very clear" electoral processes, which leave no doubt for anyone, neither the government nor the opposition.
"What is happening now is that it is a moment of normal political noise, but we are not on the political level, we are on the technical level, we are carrying out a technical implementation of the electoral process", he continued.
On Monday, after Indra said that UNITA representatives had participated in choosing the company, as they were also represented on the evaluation committee, the party countered that it did not know how that body worked, stating that the fact that the company knew how was chosen is "serious" and reveals "collusion" with the regime.
This Wednesday, Liberty Chiaka recalled that the CNE is an independent body, which organizes, executes, coordinates and conducts the electoral processes and "who made the decision to violate the law and select Minsait was the National Electoral Commission body and not the its members", stressing that the commissioners there do not represent the political parties that nominate them.
The leader of the UNITA parliamentary group appealed to Angolans not to let themselves be misinformed by those who "caught with their mouths on electoral corruption seek to insinuate the opposite to misinform, confuse Angolans clearly show their criminal nature and their shameless collusion with the institutional corruption that the state seeks to combat".
"The collusion of the Indra group and the thieves of the Angolan treasury reinforces the conviction that there is an imperative need for Angolans to accompany the process that will lead to the exercise of their sovereign right in the country of their birth step by step", he said.
Angola holds general elections in August this year.
