"The Executive Secretariat of the Standing Committee of the Political Commission of UNITA follows with great attention and concern the latest developments of political life in Angola, characterized by harmful practices to the democratic rule of law and good coexistence, where the ruling party uses all the resources and institutions of the State to subvert the law in order to perpetuate itself in power," reads a note sent to Lusa.
In the note, UNITA reports "practices that include the violation of citizens' and parties' rights, as well as the abusive use of the state media, demonstrate their congenital unpreparedness for a fair political dispute, because that is the only way to justify their acts and pronouncements in the fashion of totalitarian regimes".
For the main opposition party in Angola, "the signs of this conviction happen every day, as attested by the Voting Declaration of the newly appointed Venerable Judge President of the Constitutional Court, for whom the posture of the Regime in controlling the judicial system, represents a 'suicide of the Democratic State and of Law'".
UNITA defends that "it is impossible the existence of a Democratic State and of Law without an autonomous and independent judiciary, capable of assuring the observance of the legal system, especially of the norms consecrated in the Constitution of the Republic, as defended in its explanation of vote defeated by the Judge in question" and considers that "the recent and superficial constitutional revision and the rulings that made new political parties unviable, confirm this retrocession of the Democratic State and of Law, by will and whim of the ruling party".
The Constitutional Court received in May an impugnation, from an alleged group of UNITA members, which contests the current leadership, pointing out alleged irregularities in the congress, namely that Adalberto Costa Júnior would have run for the leadership without renouncing his Portuguese nationality. According to the press, the Public Ministry filed, in early August, with the TC an impugnation of the congress that elected the current leader.
To clear up the polemic about the nationality of its leader, the executive secretariat of the permanent committee of UNITA's political committee reacted in May, saying that Costa Júnior "renounced and lost the acquired Portuguese nationality" as measured by the "processes examined" by the Constitutional Court.
This Wednesday, UNITA criticized again the "insistent and vile campaign" against the president, Adalberto Costa Júnior, and assured that there is no illegality in his election as party president.
"The election of Engineer Adalberto Costa Júnior to the post of President of the Party obeyed the Constitution, the Law on Political Parties, the UNITA Statutes and the regulations of its XIII Ordinary Congress," they say, recalling that "the document of renunciation of the acquired nationality of Eng. Adalberto Costa Júnior is dated 11 October 2019 and the tabulation of candidacies took place on 21 October 2019, i.e. at the time of the tabulation of candidacies, Adalberto Costa Júnior held only one nationality," the Angolan one.
