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ANGOLA: Deadly Countdown for Small Parties

Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Dec 23 2008 (IPS) - Angola’s vast, confusing party landscape is about to undergo a major transformation: as of January, 22 parties and coalitions will simply vanish from the political map.

Next month, Angola’s Constitutional Court (CC) will extend the death certificate to all parties that failed to pass the 0.5 percent threshold in last September’s legislative vote. However, the measure does not apply to parties that did not run in the last election.

The country’s highest judicial body is currently questioning the parties concerned, the Jornal de Angola daily reported Monday.

Last November the CC acquiesced to a call from Angola’s Attorney General’s Office, which requested the dismantling of the 22 groups in accordance with the law on political parties.

The list includes parties such as Angola’s Alliance of the Working and Peasant Youth (PAJOCA), the Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), the Liberal Democrats (PLD), the Angolan Party for Democratic Support and Progress (PADEPA) and the Front for Democracy (FdP).

Among the coalitions that will be affected are Democratic Angola (AD), the Electoral Political Platform (PPE) and the Angolan Fraternal Forum (Foafc).

According to Portuguese correspondents in Luanda, Angolans will have a much clearer view of the political landscape a month from now – a view that is shared by the press in Portugal, the former colonial power of the vast 1.3 million square kilometre country in southwest Africa.

Angolan political scientist Eugenio Costa Almeida from the Higher Institute for Political and Social Sciences (ISCSP) in Lisbon told IPS that "legally I cannot question the suspension and possible extinction of political parties under scrutiny, except that not all parties went to the polls."

The law "is seemingly unclear regarding penalties for individual parties included in the coalitions to be punished," he added.

But while he conceded that "the process is legitimate from a legal point of view," he argued that "politically there is excessive pressure to close down parties that have given voice to the popular conscience in face of situations bordering the inadmissible."

In response to a request for examples, Costa Almeida said "I remember the case of the FdP and more recently of the PADEPA, whose presidents were detained under legally unclear conditions."

In his view, "although the law is clear and nothing can be said about the timing, politically I feel common sense is lacking."

Before moving towards the parties’ extinction, "the expected changes in constitutional law, which may contain changes relevant to the law on political parties, should have been taken into account."

Costa Almeida wonders "who should really be punished, the parties that were brave enough to run in an election which substantially changed the political spectrum, or those parties too afraid to participate in the elections and are vegetating at the expanse of public funds?"

Several smaller Angolan parties did not take part in the parliamentary elections but are recognised by law and benefit from state subsidies.

"I personally believe that these should be the first parties to go. We must put an end to political parasitism and then assess the situation of those who submitted to the voters’ verdict and give them conditions to demonstrate their importance."

How is that possible, if they failed to win a minimum of 0.5 percent of the vote? asked IPS.

"While they did not obtain the legal minimum, these parties can mobilise a number of supporters at the regional and national levels. In some cases they represent 100,000 to 150,000 voters," Costa Almeida concluded.

Another tricky legal case to be evaluated in January involves the historical National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) – a case that will prove more complicated than the extinction of small parties, according to the Jornal de Angola report.

Founded in 1962 following the dissolution of the Union of Angolan Peoples by its long-time leader Holden Roberto, the FNLA signed an unfulfilled agreement with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) to fight Portuguese colonialism.

Subsequent agreements signed in 1962 with Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) who died in combat in 2002, were only shortly upheld.

Following the April 1974 leftist military coup, Portuguese captains invited the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA to the negotiating table in a year-long effort to end the war and give way to the decolonisation of the so-called Overseas Provinces in Africa.

Since then, the FLNA has been marked by its determined opposition to the MPLA, based on their historical antagonism.

Lately the FNLA’s loss of influence among voters became notable as a result of internal divisions in 1997, 2004 and 2007, the latter following Roberto’s death. The threat of disappearing looms: The party has only three lawmakers now, compared to five in the previous term.

Another split within the FNLA could lead to a drop below the 0.5 percent mark, Angolan and Portuguese analysts speculate.