"These people, numbering around 15,000, are designated in the terms of reference as 'logistics supervisors'. Their nationality, identity and suitability are not known. Consequently, they cannot be civilly and criminally responsible for the acts carried out in the exercise of their activities. ", said the chairman of the UNITA parliamentary group, Liberty Chiyaka.
According to the parliamentary leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the technological solution approved by the CNE for the organization and management of general elections, managed by the company Indra, "is addicted".
The technological solution "includes a provision that allows the execution and control of key and non-delegable competences of the CNE, by people who are not commissioners of the CNE and are not commissioners of the electoral body".
The approximately 15,000 "logistics supervisors", said Liberty Chiyaka, "do not belong to the CNE staff, are not members of the polling stations, are not civic education agents, are not linked to the CNE and are not paid directly by the CNE ".
Alluding to the CNE's specifications, within the framework of the general elections scheduled for next August, the UNITA politician said that the participation of these people in the electoral process is based on 12 facts.
"They are not recruited by the competent services of the CNE, they control the processes of voting, tabulation and transmission of results, they transport the ballot papers and minutes already filled in from the ballot box and are not subordinated to the president of the CNE", he stressed.
The aforementioned "logistic supervisors" will also have the mission to "control the custody and distribution of sensitive electoral logistics, monitor polling stations, from the beginning of the logistical distribution of electoral material to the day of the vote".
These "do not belong to the set of about 3111 election commissioners appointed by the National Assembly (parliament) on the basis of the criteria of civic and moral suitability, probity and technical competence, on the proposal of political parties and coalitions with parliamentary seats".
"Their training program is designed by Indra, but is also not bound, they report their activity directly to undetermined entities in the National Scrutiny Center and are paid directly by the co-contracting entity, which is a non-resident foreign exchange entity, which receives in foreign currency", highlighted Chiyaka.
The chairman of the UNITA parliamentary group also stressed that "contrary to what the law requires for election commissioners and temporary workers at the CNE, the names of logistical supervisors are not published and their selection does not comply with the principles of impartiality, competence and civic suitability".
"It is thus concluded that the 'logistics supervisors' are people that the CNE does not know or control, they are not linked to the CNE or the co-contracting entity under the public tender on the acquisition of technological and logistical services", he noted. .
"By transferring to strangers, in a veiled way, an exclusive competence attributed to it by law, the CNE ostensibly violates the Constitution of the Republic of Angola and tramples on the legally protected rights and interests of citizens", he said.
If this situation "is not immediately corrected", he observed, "who will be discrediting the elections even before they take place", questioned the UNITA politician.
Liberty Chiyaka was speaking at a press conference in Luanda, where she presented what she considers "violations of the Constitution and the law by public entities and attacks on transparency and electoral truth".
The deputy of the "maninhos" also warned about "other dangers" that "threaten the smoothness and transparency of the electoral process, namely electoral corruption, which is ongoing, donations or offers likely to represent a kind of vote buying".
"Today, we see that the party led by the President of the Republic has promoted, directly and indirectly, electoral corruption. Civil servants have been forced and coerced to take part in party acts led by the president of the MPLA, the ruling party", he said.
Liberty Chiyaka also regretted the "silence" of the National Assembly on UNITA's request for the constitution of an eventual commission of the National Assembly "to monitor the acts and omissions" of the CNE and the "CNE parliamentary hearing to clarify the defects identified".
