Speaking to Lusa news agency, Pedro Dala, who was elected at the congress held between August 16 and 18 of this year as president of the FNLA, said that the conclave that elected him "fulfilled the legal procedures."
"Because the August congress was convened by the central committee of the year 2019, which Ndonda Zinga challenged its legality in the Constitutional Court, but the latter dismissed his request, saying that the central committee is accepted and its decisions and recommendations valid," he said.
According to Pedro Dala, former secretary-general of the party, who was removed from office in 2020 by party leader Lucas Ngonda, it was the central committee that authorized the president to call the congress from August 16 to 18 this year, and the preparatory committee was also noted and assessed by the Constitutional Court.
"Mr. Ngonda, in his cheats, decides to suspend Pedro Dala as secretary-general at the time and this gave problem with the Constitutional Court, which ordered him to restore legality. He didn't accept it until the judgment number 681, of May 2021, which said that the congress should be held in August, on the 16th, 17th, and 18th. It is a constitutional imperative", he underlined.
Pedro Dala referred that once legality was restored, the preparatory commission assessed and annotated by the Constitutional Court worked during the month of July, and elective conferences were held in all provinces, with the exception of Cabinda and Cuando Cubango.
"We wrote to the elder Ngonda, sent the invitation, he denied it and forged a document that said the court gave him permission, this on August 16, for the congress to be postponed. We went to the Constitutional Court, we confirmed the document, and it was false", he assured.
The politician stressed that the decisions of the Constitutional Court are binding, so the congress was held on the date called by the central committee and which the court also advised doing.
"Held that congress, with all the provinces in the country, Pedro Dala wins as president. The elder Ngonda as he did not want to clash with Pedro Dala, because he knew that he is the power and that at any time he could beat them all, he forged a congress out of bounds and for that he fetches the elder Nimi from Simbi and others to say that he is the president and in charge. No! He has rules, so the congress he made is invalid and with very serious mistakes," he argued.
The newly elected president of the FNLA stressed that the opening of the congress obeys rules, the first step being to confer the mandate of the delegates to the congress, "which he did not do".
"He opened an open bar, where militants and non-militants entered to hear the speech, to give the charm, and after the speech he left the room and went away. The militants stayed the 16th, 17th and 18th doing absolutely nothing, and he shows up on the 19th to have elections. But what kind of congress is this?", he questioned.
"This is not a congress, it's another Lucas Ngonda's theater, and, by the way, he lost, so I'm calm, because we were advised by the court, we complied and we put the whole process in the Constitutional Court and it's going through its gauging process. We are calm", he underlined.
Pedro Dala recalled that in October 2019, Lucas Ngonda, in the party leadership since 2010, had signed a pact in which he guaranteed that he would no longer run for a new election.
Asked if he would be available to reconcile with the "brothers" of the other wing, including Nimi a Simbi, Pedro Dala said that on August 14 he met with Simbi and other members and made them see that "by embracing the elder Lucas Ngonda" they would "die politically with him."
"For me everything is open, I will invite him to a meeting to make him see the truth and he will understand this. My work continues, to date I have brought together more than 50 disaffected individuals and I continue to work, in fact, my presidency is open to dialogue with everyone," he said.
Questioned if he will submit a request to the Constitutional Court to impeach this congress, Pedro Dala was ironic in his answer, asking: "What for? if Lucas Ngonda himself did not accept the results and is going to impeach the act".
"What encourages me at this moment is that people learn to respect the laws, because we have a country where the courts work, and the fact that we do not comply with the laws is a serious matter, so that when I do something it is with body and limbs, without defrauding any court, I am in this diapason," he stressed.
