"UNITA's Communication and Marketing Secretariat followed with concern the press conference held on 1 August and led by the Secretary of the Political Bureau of the ruling party for Electoral Affairs, with intimidating content and bellicose insinuation", says the party in communicated.
The document stresses that "after decades of misunderstandings and armed conflict, it is well established that the Angola of today and that of the future presuppose permanent dialogue and consultation among its children".
At issue are statements by the secretary of the Political Bureau of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) for Electoral Affairs, João "Jú" Martins, who rejected any negotiation with UNITA for the alternation of power in the country, which is carrying out its fifth general elections on the 24th of this month.
"In this context, the informal meeting between UNITA and MPLA leaders, held in the spirit of openness that is characteristic of the president of UNITA, Eng.º Adalberto Costa Júnior, aimed to establish bridges in order to guarantee a peaceful electoral environment and stability national level, which in democratic societies is recommended", underlines the statement.
The largest opposition party warns that "any and all manifestation of verbal violence indicating probable political instability is totally alien to the interests of UNITA and Angolans".
"The electoral platform supported by UNITA led by Adalberto Costa Júnior represents, today, the will of the vast majority of Angolans who, in a democratic way, clamor for the alternation of power", says the document.
In this sense, UNITA points out, "nothing justifies all this alarmism expressed by Mr. João Martins, who, in fact, only hides the real intentions of his party".
"UNITA's Communication and Marketing Secretariat regrets the fact that the aforementioned leader, duly mandated by the leadership of his party, repeatedly confuses this party with the State, as these are two absolutely different entities", the statement said.
The set of claims submitted, through documents, by UNITA to the State bodies, namely the Constitutional Court and the National Electoral Commission (CNE), with knowledge of public opinion, "are legitimate as they can also be proved materially and legally", emphasizes the note.
"This secretariat challenges the leadership of the ruling party to present evidence that disqualifies and discredits the polls that clearly express UNITA's advantage, and the will of the citizens for a peaceful, orderly, safe and inclusive alternation that finds its expression in the electoral platform, United Patriotic Front", highlights the party.
"On the contrary, the results ordered by the regime and published by companies, de facto and de jure, non-existent are surreal and unrealistic that Angolan citizens live, in 2022, on the eve of the general elections", they add.
For UNITA, "the extreme position of the current regime against the patriotic forces represented by UNITA is a reflection of the awareness and courage of citizens in general and voters, in particular, who reject the regime and bet on alternation, because the theft of the treasury, organized and practiced by the ruling party, is the cause of the extreme poverty that plagues the country".
João Martins said, on Monday, that he was approached by the president of the MPLA parliamentary group, in order to make himself available for a meeting with the president of UNITA, of which he gave a note to the president of the party (João Lourenço, also President of the Republic de Angola and who is reapplying for the position) and which took place on 27 May, in a hotel in Luanda.
Over the course of three and a half hours, problems of the current political moment were discussed, namely voter lists and the treatment of the database, as well as the visibility given to UNITA by the public press, but issues related to the transition were not addressed.
"What transition, what business", underlined Martins, adding that, in order to deal with matters of this nature, they would have to be mandated by the party leadership, and not just by its leader, since "power is conquered, not negotiated".
At the meeting, the president of UNITA was also informed that some of the actions he was organizing could have "a subversive character" and that "the subversion was won on 22 February 2002 [when the leader and founder of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, was killed in combat by the Angolan army] and was defeated by the Angolan State".
"Therefore, we warned that he was not warned to allow any type of actions to have that nature, because then it was not the MPLA that would fight with UNITA, but the Angolan State with its institutions", he stressed.
"As he did in February 2002, he would also do it now if actions that threaten stability, public order, outside the matrix of political contention continue to be carried out", stressed the same official.
Angola holds its fifth general election on 24 August (after 1992, 2008, 2012, 2017, all won by the MPLA) with eight competing political forces taking place.
