In a press conference, the Minister of State and the Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, presented the proposals announced by the Head of State for a specific review of the constitutional law in force in Angola since 2010.
Setting the date of the elections is one of the issues to be reviewed, as the current Constitution gives the President the discretionary power for that purpose, the only goal being that elections are held up to 30 days before the end of the term.
"This situation does not give stability to the electoral calendar and does not allow stabilization", said the minister, exemplifying with the last three electoral acts (2008 - September 5, 2012 - August 31, and 2017 - August 23).
According to Adão de Almeida, at each electoral act, under the terms in which the system is set up, it is possible to have a reduction, which means that, in the long term, the country may be holding elections in June, May and so on. .
"The President has less scope to set the date of the elections, it is proposed that the elections take place in the third week of August of the year in which there are elections. The President of the Republic has to set elections within that period, introducing the predictability for those who organize and those who participate in the elections, all political parties know when the elections are going to take place and their preparation is not dependent on the act of summoning by the President ", he reinforced.
According to Adão de Almeida, the current Constitution mixed impediments and ineligibility for the candidacy for President of the Republic, which is clarified in the proposal, maintaining the current ones, namely citizens who hold any acquired nationality, adding people sentenced to prison terms. prison term of more than three years, as is already foreseen for candidates for deputies.
Adão de Almeida considered another clarification "very important", the situations of the Presidents who have resigned themselves during the second term, being prevented from the proposal to run for a third term.
"The Constitution has the mechanism of political self-dismissal, which is the only one that can lead to early general elections," explained Adão de Almeida, stressing that with the current formulation it may happen that a President forces a situation of political self-resignation to achieve a third term.
The Minister of State and head of the Civil House of the President of the Republic stressed that the interventions made in the current Constitution aim in essence to clarify the institutional relationship between the President and the parliament, avoiding a less clear space of interpretation, to reinforce the constitutional role of parliament some matters, for example the appointment of the governor of the BNA.
"It is a punctual review, but very important, because if we have a good Constitution, the existing notes allow us to say that we can have a Constitution a little better than the one we have at the moment", he stressed.
Adão de Almeida stressed that the President's initiative is timely and important, and opens the way for a debate that everyone considers necessary, being sure that in the parliamentary framework these proposals will be thoroughly discussed and analyzed, with the eventual appearance of other proposals.
