Angola: Opposition parties’ coalition banned from standing in general election

LUANDA, Angola 

The head of the political parties’ office of the Angolan constitutional court said on Monday that the United Patriotic Front (FPU), a platform comprising opposition parties and movements, could not stand as a candidate in the general elections or carry out party political acts.

According to Mauro Alexandre, who was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a training seminar for media professionals on the electoral process as part of the general elections scheduled for August, the FPU does not meet the legal requirements to present a candidacy as it is neither a legal entity nor a coalition, since for that purpose it would have to be annotated (recognised) by the constitutional court (TC).

"Under the constitution and the law, only legally constituted political parties and coalitions that are registered in force with the TC can stand for general elections,” said the jurist and head of the TC’s political parties office.

The FPU, whose leaders are the head of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Adalberto da Costa Júnior, the head of the Democratic Bloc, Filomeno Vieira Lopes, and the head of the political project PRA JÁ-Servir Angola, Abel Chivukuvuku, was launched on 5 October 2021 and presents itself as an “ad-hoc” movement that unites opposition forces for democratic change.

Angola, governed since independence in 1975 by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), is scheduled to hold general elections for the fifth time in its history in August 2022.

"This citizens’ movement (…) that has introduced itself publicly is not a proper juridical entity in the eyes of the TC and as such does not exist in juridical-legal terms and therefore cannot present a candidacy”, he justified.

For the same reason, the FPU cannot perform actions or activities of a party-political nature, which are reserved for political parties.

"In terms of campaigning and pre-election campaigning, only political parties and coalitions of political parties may do so, without prejudice to certain citizens who so wish and wish to join these political forces,” the lawyer explained.

Mauro Alexandre also said that as the FPU has no annotation in the TC it cannot, through symbols or acronyms, appear publicly and promote political activities “under the penalty of confusing the electorate”.

The same official said that this platform may even incur in a crime, for carrying out political party activity outside the legal framework: “it may presuppose the affront to the public authority of the State (…) which may have legal consequences”.

The lawyer noted that the law on political parties and the Angolan Penal Code itself “establish certain legal penalties when there is disobedience to the public authority of the State”.