Unita says will not block election law changes

LUANDA – Angolan opposition party Unita will not stand in the way of changes to the country’s election law, it said on Monday, hoping to speed up plans for the country’s first post-war ballot scheduled for 2006.

A ruling on Friday by the Supreme Court paved the way for long-standing President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos to run for another three terms – and sent an electoral law passed in April back to Parliament for amendment. “We don’t want to be the stumbling block in terms of delaying this electoral package,” Unita secretary for Public Administration Alcides Sakala said.The Supreme Court’s decision provided welcome clarification and had cleared up some of the “black holes” in the process, Sakala said.”What we need now is to speed up the amendments to the law so that a National Electoral Commission (CNE) is set up and we can begin to work towards the realisation of elections.”Holding elections in Angola will be no easy task, with much of the country’s infrastructure shattered by neglect and 27-years of conflict, and Unita had said it suspected the ruling MPLA of trying to delay elections beyond the scheduled date of 2006.Angola’s last election in 1992 was deemed generally free and fair by international observers, but then rebel group Unita disputed the result and returned to battle, plunging sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest oil producer into another decade of war.The conflict ended in 2002 following the battlefield death of Unita leader Jonas Savimbi, and the organisation has since disarmed and ruled out a return to warfare after the elections.- Nampa-Reuters”We don’t want to be the stumbling block in terms of delaying this electoral package,” Unita secretary for Public Administration Alcides Sakala said.The Supreme Court’s decision provided welcome clarification and had cleared up some of the “black holes” in the process, Sakala said.”What we need now is to speed up the amendments to the law so that a National Electoral Commission (CNE) is set up and we can begin to work towards the realisation of elections.”Holding elections in Angola will be no easy task, with much of the country’s infrastructure shattered by neglect and 27-years of conflict, and Unita had said it suspected the ruling MPLA of trying to delay elections beyond the scheduled date of 2006.Angola’s last election in 1992 was deemed generally free and fair by international observers, but then rebel group Unita disputed the result and returned to battle, plunging sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest oil producer into another decade of war.The conflict ended in 2002 following the battlefield death of Unita leader Jonas Savimbi, and the organisation has since disarmed and ruled out a return to warfare after the elections.- Nampa-Reuters