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Politics

Opposition argues that PR "should not enact" electoral law due to rules that "undermine transparency"

Political parties in the opposition argued this Thursday that the President, João Lourenço, "should not promulgate" the law that alters the organic law of the general elections, approved on Wednesday, because it contains norms that "attack the transparency of the elections.

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The opposition political parties with parliamentary seats presented on Thursday in a press conference a joint statement on the referred law, approved on Wednesday only with the votes in favor of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

For the parliamentary opposition, "in the name of peace, of political stability, of true democracy and of Angola's credibility at world level, the holder of executive power and President of the regime should not promulgate this law.

"And that he brings it back to the parliament, as he did with the Penal Code, to purge from it everything that threatens the transparency of the elections," the opposition demands.

The parliament on Wednesday approved in its entirety the bill amending the organic law for general elections, with votes against by the opposition, which considered the document as a "law of electoral fraud," while the MPLA praised the diploma.

The bill was approved with 126 votes for the MPLA, 52 against and one abstention during the 12th extraordinary plenary meeting of the National Assembly.

The legislative initiative results from the merger of amendment bills proposed by the parliamentary groups of the MPLA and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

This Thursday, the parliamentary groups of UNITA, the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola - Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE), the parliamentary representation of the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and the group of deputies not integrated in any parliamentary group considered the referred law as the "law of electoral fraud or corruption".

"Because it (the law) eliminates or reduces the control mechanisms for electoral transparency and turns into law the practices that sustain fraud. The regime's electoral law facilitates multiple voting, because voters are not checked off the voter rolls in real time and it allows hundreds of thousands of people to vote before election day," reads the joint statement.

According to the opposition, the regime's "electoral law legalizes unequal voting" because it "allows competing parties to be confused with the state, does not guarantee equal access of competitors to the use of public resources, and reduces the presence of inspectors at polling stations."

The opposition "rejects the proposal to guarantee the unity of the vote and the integrity of the voter's identity through the availability of a simple computer application at polling stations with the biometric data of voters in each province."

What happened Wednesday in parliament, the opposition says, "was not a simple fact of voting on a law, nor was it a mere disagreement between the people's elected deputies."

It was "an act of betrayal of the homeland an act of aggression against the foundations of the Republic of Angola, an act of subversion of democracy to prevent the free, universal, and equal exercise of popular sovereignty. An illegitimate act, despite being legal", considers the opposition.

The parties also understand that Angola "needs to be freed from bad governance and the rule of law needs to be rescued. Democracy will free Angola and Angolans will rescue the State."

"And when we said the Angolans, we included, of course, the leaders and the militants of the regime who are also gagged and are prisoners of the corrupting and corrupting system that the regime installed in Angola," they note.

"There is only one way we can do that. It is the union of the patriotic forces to defeat tyranny and bad governance. It is the union of democratic forces before, during, and after the 2022 elections," they also state in their joint position.

For UNITA, CASA-CE, PRS and the members not integrated in parliamentary groups "there are only two choices for 2022: on one side, Angola, and on the other, the regime".

The MPLA voted in favor because, according to its deputy Tomás da Silva, the revised law now approved results from the merger of the legislative initiative of the two largest parties that "discussed the articles thoroughly".

"The vote against can only be a tantrum or, once again, the old ghost of fraud. The present revised law defends deadlines for the conduct of electoral acts and gives greater guarantees of efficiency and impartiality to the work of polling stations," argued the deputy in his explanation of vote.

The next general elections in Angola are scheduled for 2022. Voter registration will start at the end of September in Angola and abroad.

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