At 9am, several people, mostly young people, started to concentrate near the Santa Ana cemetery, with posters that criticized the Constitutional Court's stance regarding the process of legalization of the Party of the Renaissance Angola - Together for Angola - Servir Angola (PRA-JA Servir Angola).
The march started at 1pm - in obedience to the law of demonstrations - as soon as it arrived at Abel Chivukuvuku, in front of nearly 600 demonstrators, including Luís Valente, coordinator of the Luanda municipality of PRA-JA Servir Angola.
In a statement to Lusa, Luis Valente protested against the court's decision, which even though all legal requirements for the party's validation were met, rejected the case.
"We comply with everything that the law emanates. We gave the 32 thousand signatures, which is not only this assumption, among them 4500 already recognized in the notary, adding that those that the court has already approved, obviously we have more than 8 thousand signatures and the law only provides for 7 thousand, but the court took a non-legal political decision, that is why we are here in this march to repudiate the court," he said.
Luis Valente stressed that the struggle for legalization will persist as Abel Chivukuvuku told the demonstrators this Saturday.
"We will fight until we beat the court of this non-legal, but political decision," he said.
Yarete Simão said that he joined the demonstration, "because of how much the people are distressed with the situation of the country".
"The people are tired, hungry, thirsty, miserable, at all levels, we are tired and we prefer MPLA to rest, that is why I invite all the young people to join the manifestation, whatever it may be", he stressed.
Yarete Simão is also convinced that the court decision is political.
"There's nothing legal there, so the court has to review the way of working, because this way Angola won't go far", he condemned.
Olívio João Ribeiro said he participated in the march because he wants improvements for the country, "since there is much suffering in Angola and the dictatorship continues.
"I participated in this demonstration to give my contribution as an Angolan citizen, but there is an obstacle, because of the system that governs in the country, the MPLA," said Olívio João Ribeiro, highlighting that the demonstration was peaceful and orderly.
"But our goal was to get to the court, the police prevented us from getting to the court," stressed the demonstrator, noting that "there was no vandalism," compared to previous demonstrations held in the capital, which ended, some of them in deaths, with the destruction of public and private property and arrests.
"We are doing something peaceful, respecting all the norms of social distancing, but even so the police have blocked the way," said Olívio João Ribeiro, about the role of the police, however, praised by the coordinator of the PRA-JA Servir Angola installation commission, Abel Chivukuvuku.
About the court's decision, the demonstrator considered "repugnant", emphasizing that the population present at the march is the one who signed the documents.
"How does the court have the courage to say that the signatures are false. If they were false, this population wouldn't be here, because whoever is here is the one who signed them, there is no logic in this decision", he considered.
The Constitutional Court definitely rejected PRA-JA Servir Angola's allegation for "not making up for shortcomings" and presenting "ambiguous allegations," referring to its possible legalization within four years.
The decision of the plenary of judges of the Constitutional Court follows the most recent appeal with allegations filed by the installation commission, in which it challenged the order rejecting that instance, dated 27 August 2020, after other previous failures to legalize the process initiated in 2019.
Ruling 654/2020 states that the allegations about the rejection of an extraordinary appeal of unconstitutionality, filed in Ruling 632/2020 contain "several inaccuracies".
Abel Chivukuvuku promised this Saturday when he addressed the demonstrators that he will continue to fight in justice for the legalization of PRA-JA Servir Angola and hold demonstrations throughout the country next year.
