The Head of State, João Lourenço, announced this Tuesday the need for a punctual revision of the Constitution of the Republic, namely to clarify the model of institutional relationship between the President of the Republic and the National Assembly in relation to political oversight.
João Lourenço, who was speaking at the opening of the second ordinary session of the Council of Ministers, also pointed out as issues to be reviewed the right to vote abroad, the elimination of gradualism in the Constitution, the main point of divergence between the State and the opposition parties for the holding of the first local elections, the affirmation of the Angolan central bank as an independent entity and the establishment of a fixed period for holding general elections.
On the subject, the leader of the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola - Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE), Manuel Fernandes, said that the old complaints of the opposition parties were recognized, in relation to the need for a revision of the Constitution.
For Manuel Fernandes, the revision is necessary in the measure in which it is necessary to get out of the atypical situation in which "the citizen elects, through one vote, two distinct organs of sovereignty".
"The President of the Republic must be elected in a direct, secret and universal manner, through a special ballot paper, and the Parliament must also be elected through its own ballot paper," he said.
The leader of the second largest opposition political force in the country mentioned that it is fundamental to confer the right to vote to Angolans in the diaspora, as well as it is equally important to value the status of a true National Bank of Angola.
"We have always said that the bank as an entity that coordinates and regulates the monetary and exchange rate policy should not be subject to the rules of those who govern, because there may be changes of successive governments [and] the bank should be there intact, otherwise tomorrow it may be vulnerable to cyclical changes and this may cause other problems," he stressed.
Manuel Fernandes defended that other issues should be reviewed, namely the judicial power, as he does not agree that the heads of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts should be nominated by the President of the Republic.
In relation to the question of gradualism, the politician underlined that with this announcement it is possible to move towards a universalization process, leaving the stages for a global process, but in his understanding, this "cannot be an alibi to delay the implementation of the municipalities in the country, nor to postpone the general elections of 2022".
"The intention is worth it, the initiative, but the important thing is to get out of the intention and into practice," he stressed.
For his part, the leader of the Social Renewal Party (PRS), Benedito Daniel, the President intends to address issues that are not going well, praising the aspect of supervision by the National Assembly.
"This is a situation that the deputies have been complaining about a lot, and the lack of supervision is exactly attributed to the Constitution", said Benedito Daniel, stressing that other issues, "which unfortunately were not mentioned by the President", should be reviewed, "such as the separation of the elections".
"So, to have presidential elections and legislative elections, because this model of general elections, which is completely atypical, is also not convenient, and the complaint that exists in society is that the elections should be separate, but that unfortunately the President did not cite," he said.
On the subject of gradualism, Benedito Daniel considered that it should be clearly defined in the Constitution how the process will occur, because "if we eliminate for the sake of eliminating, we don't understand.
For the president of the National Front for the National Liberation of Angola (FNLA), Lucas Ngonda, a revision of the Constitution of the Republic was necessary, and the President's announcement on Tuesday was opportune.
For him, three essential points were addressed, namely the issue of gradualism, linked to the local elections, the issue of the National Bank autonomy and the parliamentary supervision.
According to Lucas Ngonda, the Constitution in force offers all the guarantees, but in the application of these guarantees it no longer finds ways of implementation.
"We will wait for the President to propose to the National Assembly what are the fundamental issues and the deep reasons that lead him to revise it, because if it is necessary to revise this Constitution one has to revise several other issues; one of them is the problem of parliamentary supervision that does not exist, the deputies cannot question ministers and several other issues that we have constantly talked about," he pointed out.
Lucas Ngonda reiterated that the 2010 Constitution does not correspond to the existing profile of the country, which "gives many guarantees, but the applicability of these guarantees is not supported by the functioning of the institutions.
The FNLA leader also highlighted the resumption of the possibility of Angolans abroad being able to vote as it appeared in the previous Constitution.
"That is why we always said that the previous Constitution was more complete than this one, because in terms of voting abroad there were 223 deputies, of which three would represent Angolans living outside the country," he argued.
The Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition party) called a press conference for this Tuesday afternoon to comment on the President's announcement.
