UNITA and the Democratic Bloc (BD) - the two parties that form the United Patriotic Front - filed a precautionary measure with the TC, alleging "irregularities detected in the electoral process", according to the local press, namely, the non-publication of the lists of the provisional electoral registration, under the terms of article 399 of the Civil Procedure Code.
Publishing the lists at each of the registration offices would allow voters to verify the compliance of their electoral registers, but also an efficient purge of missing voters on the same lists, argue the opposition parties.
The TC invoked the "lack of legitimacy of the interested parties" as justification for the decision, as well as considering that "the administrative avenues have not been exhausted" for the contestation.
"The injunction was filed on behalf of the political parties UNITA and Bloco Democrático, however, the power of attorney attached to the process makes no mention of these institutions, but only to two individuals, namely Arlete Leona Chimbinda [vice-president of UNITA and deputy ] and Filomeno Vieira Lopes [president of the BD], without reference to the quality in which they intervene", argues the TC, quoted by Jornal de Angola.
"The applicants do not have the legitimacy to file the present unspecified injunction, which (...) constitutes sufficient grounds for rejecting the application", adds the panel of judges.
The TC also considers that the injunction "is devoid of object of process, since, in the litigation of the Official Electoral Register, the judicial challenge has for object the decision rendered by the organ of the public administration, with competence for the management and maintenance of the Base of Data from Senior Citizens", and forwards the challenge to the National Electoral Commission (CNE).
"The useful effect of the process would be better ensured through the contentious appeal of the unofficial Electoral Register, not through an injunction", write the judges of the TC.
Less than three months before the general elections - scheduled for August, but without a concrete date, which has not yet been announced by President João Lourenço - the opposition considers that time is already scarce for the correction of the lists of 164 municipalities throughout the territory and 44 urban districts, preventing names of unduly constant, absent, or even deceased voters from being kept there.
UNITA and BD therefore ask, in the measure rejected by the TC, that the highest judicial instance in the country determine "the provisional publication provided for in the Official Electoral Registration Law, so that citizens can verify and correct existing errors and omissions".
