In a press release, the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) says that the document was sent to the Constitutional Court on Thursday, highlighting that, in 2010, the Minister of Territorial Administration promised the implementation of Local Authorities and the holding of local elections for 2012, "gradually and after a pilot experience".
According to the source, in 2012, when the first "general elections" were held to elect the President of the Republic and deputies to the National Assembly, the electoral manifesto of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) promised the implementation of local authorities and the holding of local elections in 2014, gradually and only in some municipalities.
The note highlights that UNITA, in its Electoral Manifesto, also advocated holding local elections in all municipalities simultaneously, with its parliamentary group having presented, in March 2014, the first legislative initiative on local government, namely the draft organic law on the system of organization and functioning of local government, which was rejected by the MPLA parliamentary group.
In the document submitted to the Constitutional Court, UNITA reports the sequence of events and actions that occurred between 2016 and 2017, highlighting the approval of the organic law on local government (Law No. 15/17, of July 31), which establishes the bases of the system of organization, functioning and implementation of local authorities.
According to the UNITA parliamentary group, "the subsequent years were also marked by promises and facts leading to the realization of local power, without, however, achieving this objective".
According to the opposition party, in 2023, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, "forgot everything he had said before about local authorities" and created an Interministerial Commission to change the political-administrative division of Angola, "aiming to more than triple the number of municipalities in the country (581 municipalities and eliminating all communes and districts)".
Last year, João Lourenço presented an initiative to parliament "with the aim of increasing the number of municipalities from 164 to 325, intending to change the political-administrative division".
"The deputies who signed the action sent to the Constitutional Court understand that there is a lack of political and patriotic will on the part of the President of the Republic, as he decided to increase the number of municipalities instead of starting a true administrative reform by transforming all municipalities into local authorities", they consider.
Between 2017 and 2024, the note notes, 11 diplomas on local power were approved, but "the law on the effective institutionalization of local authorities has not been approved to date, even though there are two diplomas proposed, one by the holder of executive power and the other by the UNITA parliamentary group".
