"Yes, it is clear that electoral observation has its importance in the process, it ensures the transparency of the process, but there are deadlines in which it must occur, so under the law, electoral observation begins with the electoral campaign", said today the CNE spokesperson Lucas Quilundo when questioned by Lusa.
According to the official, electoral observation, by national and foreign entities, begins a month before election day and the accreditation process "must begin with the call for elections and the calculation of candidacies by the Constitutional Court".
"In the meantime, the CNE is waiting for this moment to arrive in order to operationalize the issue linked to electoral observation", said Lucas Quilundo on the sidelines of the first National Methodological Meeting on the 2022 General Elections that started this Friday, in Luanda.
"It is the CNE's obligation to create these conditions (for election observers) and as soon as the time comes these (conditions) will be created", he stressed.
The European Union (EU) announced last February that it "is ready" to follow the general elections in Angola, scheduled for August, and "maintains dialogue" with the Government and with all important partners in the process, but Luanda "is not yet expressed interest".
The EU ambassador to Angola, Jeannette Seppen, predicted that the next general elections, scheduled for the second half of August, will serve to strengthen democracy in the country.
Angola holds in the second half of August this year, as established by the country's revised Constitution, the fifth general elections in the country's history, since 1992.
The last two elections, namely in 2012 and 2017, did not have observers from the European Union.
Regarding the level of execution of the tasks in progress, aiming at the general elections of next August, the spokesperson of the entity that manages the electoral process in Angola indicated that the balance "is satisfactory".
"Because the programmed tasks were carried out within the established deadline, such as the supervision of the electoral registration that ended, the program for launching public tenders for the contracting of service providers within the scope of this process", he stressed.
Actions related to the civic education of electoral agents To be involved in all preparations for the general elections are also included in the tasks programmed by the CNE.
