The decision is expressed in judgment 703/2021, which aims to clarify the doubts of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition party) on judgment 700/2021, which determined the nullity of the XIII Ordinary Congress of 2019 and consequently the removal of the president elected at the 13th Congress of 2019, Adalberto da Costa Júnior, replaced by the outgoing leadership of the 12th Ordinary Congress of 2015, chaired by Isaías Samakuva, who led the "Black Rooster" party for 16 years.
UNITA asked, raising questions regarding the meaning and scope of the decision that declared the XIII Congress of 2019 and the subsequent administrative acts practiced by the directorate meanwhile illegitimate to be ineffective, the legal nature of the mandate of the bodies that emerged from the XII Ordinary Congress of 2015, a competence of the bodies elected in that conclave and the term of office of the current leadership of the party, led by Isaías Samakuva.
The plenary, which considered that the clarification is "justifiable", understood that the declaration of nullity regarding the party's deliberations and political acts is distinct from the party's administrative management decisions.
Thus, it maintains the null effect as to the validity of the positions of vice presidents, general secretary and assistant general secretary, members of the party's national executive, provincial secretaries and other leaders who have been "illicitly elected by the political commission established by the XIII 2019 Congress or who have been appointed by the illegitimate president", that is, Adalberto da Costa Júnior.
In the case of administrative acts and decisions, the eight judges who signed the judgment consider that it is the prerogative of the current board to analyze and decide on contracts, agreements and other acts of current management that have been carried out.
As for the legal nature of the mandate of the board elected at the XII Ordinary Congress of 2015, the decision states that judgment 700/2021 "did not grant any other mandate to the party", maintaining the legal nature of an effective statutory right and stresses that legitimacy of the current management "is full for the purposes of exercising all its powers".
Regarding the term of office, the ruling invokes the statutes approved in 2015 by UNITA itself, which establish under the terms of articles 1 and 3 of article 50 that the term of the party president begins with his election and investiture in congress and it ends with the election and investiture of the new elected president.
"In this way, the mandate of the current deliberative and executive bodies of the political party UNITA ends only with the election and swearing in of the new president and other management bodies, without prejudice to the observance of a period of seven years from the last registration of the renewal valid of the central management bodies, under penalty of extinction, under the terms of subparagraph f) of paragraph 2 of article 17 of the CRA, of article 8 of subparagraph d) of paragraph 4 of article 33 , both from the LPP and from article 50 of the December 2015 Statutes", write the judges in the document dated 3 November and to which Lusa had access.
Adalberto Costa Júnior this Wednesday submitted his candidacy for the presidency of UNITA, the only one presented so far.
In a brief intervention addressed to the hundreds of militants and sympathizers present, Adalberto Costa Júnior, who was UNITA leader until October, removed from office by imposition of the Constitutional Court, which annulled the 2019 congress, said that the moment was "charged with importance "and that his candidacy represents his "complete availability to serve the party and through it to serve Angola".
The period for submitting candidacies to the XIII Congress, which takes place between December 2nd and 4th, ends on Thursday, being this the first held so far.
