Will Angola Elections Be Free And Fair?

ANGOLA’s long-delayed national elections seemed to take a step closer this month, when the country’s most influential government body advised President José Eduardo dos Santos on a target date of September 2006 for the poll.

The Council of the Republic declared that the elections “should be preceded by a legal and well-defined framework and the creation of technical, material, and financial conditions, as assurance of a fair and transparent electoral process.” Angolans have not had the chance to vote since 1992.That first and last multi-party election, narrowly won by the incumbent MPLA party, followed a peace agreement aimed at ending a 15-year civil war between the MPLA and the UNITA rebels.The election ended in chaos, as UNITA supporters were killed in the capital, while UNITA once again took up arms and seized large areas of the interior.The ensuing decade of war made elections impossible, despite the government’s mandate technically having expired in 1997.The new peace agreement that followed the death in 2002 of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, and the decimation of UNITA’s forces, once again raised hopes of a democratic future for Angola.It is encouraging to note that the government seems committed not only to elections, but also to a “fair and transparent electoral process”.The question is, how far does Angola need to travel before free and fair elections become a realistic prospect? Recent research by Human Rights Watch suggests a troubling discrepancy between Luanda, where some basic freedoms are starting to take root, and the interior of the country, where the repressive climate of the war years still prevails.In the capital, the Catholic broadcaster, Rádio Ecclesia, hosts phone-ins that provide a forum for lively and unfettered debate.Half a dozen independent weekly papers pull no punches in condemning government policy and exposing corruption.And although the police do still occasionally move in to break up peaceful demonstrations, there is no doubt that it is now easier to stage a legal protest than it was during the war.Yet in the provinces of the interior, out of sight of the media and the diplomatic corps, the picture is very different.In February this year, when the citizens of Cafunfo, in the diamond fields of north-eastern Angola, took to the streets to protest at the removal of the diesel generators that had provided their neighbourhood with electricity, the police and security guards opened fire.Fifteen people were reported killed, including a 10-year-old boy and two teenage girls.Police arrested 17 people, three of whom are since believed to have died in detention, while the rest remain in custody without access to family or lawyers.In some remote towns, political opposition groups have faced violence and threats simply for trying to organise party branches.UNITA members, now trying to rebuild civilian structures, told us how soldiers and government supporters had attacked the building where UNITA had set up a new branch office in the town of Kalima, in Huambo province.The attackers allegedly carried automatic weapons; the victims recounted how they broke into the building, tried to burn it down, and assaulted the UNITA officials inside.UNITA was only narrowly defeated by the MPLA in the 1992 polls, and is today the group with the best chance of becoming a political counterweight to the ruling party.Its future as a political party will depend on its ability to mobilise in places like Huambo province, where its core support is based.Free and diverse media are another prerequisite for free and fair elections.Yet the advances in press freedom made in the last few years barely extend beyond the coast.The private weekly papers are difficult to come by outside of Luanda; in any case, a third of Angolan adults cannot read, and few can afford papers that sell on the street for 120 kwanzas (N$9.00).Even in Luanda, editors and journalists operate in fear of harsh libel laws.Felizberto Graca Campos, editor of the weekly Seminário Angolense, recently faced five criminal libel suits after an article that named Angola’s richest men; all of them had government or MPLA connections.Campos received a suspended prison sentence on the first count, was acquitted on the second, and the others are still pending.The government controls the only daily newspaper, and the only terrestrial television station.State media are subsidised to the tune of more than US$30 million a year, a sum far greater than the subsidies paid to other state-owned industries; meanwhile, the private papers battle to survive on meagre advertising revenues.Radio, the most accessible medium in Angola as elsewhere in the continent, is government-controlled in most parts of the country, with private stations broadcasting only in a handful of cities near the coast.Rádio Ecclesia, respected in Luanda as the most reliable source of independent news, recently installed new transmitters and announced it would be starting test broadcasts in other provinces.The media minister, Hendrick Vaal Neto, responded by telling Angola’s Catholic bishops that such transmissions would be illegal.Never mind the fact that Ecclesia has long held a licence valid for the whole country, and that previously it was only technical constraints that confined it to Luanda.This mismatch between positive legislation and questionable practice on the part of the government is a recurring theme in HRW’s Angolan research.The multi-party constitution that came into force before the 1992 elections promised free expression, the right to form political parties, and the right to protest peacefully: in other words, all the freedoms necessary for participation in the democratic process.The return to war eroded those freedoms.Peace may have brought some relief, yet the restrictions that remain are sufficient to undermine the principles of democratic governance.The government of Angola now needs to make sure that opposition leaders and supporters be granted the opportunity to express their views peacefully without fear of reprisals.The government should also lift the remaining restrictions on the private media, and in particular allow non-government radio stations to broadcast throughout the country.Angola’s neighbours, many of which have themselves enjoyed huge advances in personal and political liberty in the last 15 years, need to encourage this often-neglected country to make a reality of the kind of freedoms that are expected in any democratic society.Only when that is achieved will Angola, its neighbours, and the rest of the world, be able to celebrate that the country has, at last, shaken itself free from the legacy of war.Justin Pearce was one of the authors of the report by Human Rights Watch, Unfinished Democracy: Media and Political Freedoms in Angola.Angolans have not had the chance to vote since 1992.That first and last multi-party election, narrowly won by the incumbent MPLA party, followed a peace agreement aimed at ending a 15-year civil war between the MPLA and the UNITA rebels.The election ended in chaos, as UNITA supporters were killed in the capital, while UNITA once again took up arms and seized large areas of the interior.The ensuing decade of war made elections impossible, despite the government’s mandate technically having expired in 1997.The new peace agreement that followed the death in 2002 of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, and the decimation of UNITA’s forces, once again raised hopes of a democratic future for Angola.It is encouraging to note that the government seems committed not only to elections, but also to a “fair and transparent electoral process”.The question is, how far does Angola need to travel before free and fair elections become a realistic prospect? Recent research by Human Rights Watch suggests a troubling discrepancy between Luanda, where some basic freedoms are starting to take root, and the interior of the country, where the repressive climate of the war years still prevails.In the capital, the Catholic broadcaster, Rádio Ecclesia, hosts phone-ins that provide a forum for lively and unfettered debate.Half a dozen independent weekly papers pull no punches in condemning government policy and exposing corruption.And although the police do still occasionally move in to break up peaceful demonstrations, there is no doubt that it is now easier to stage a legal protest than it was during the war.Yet in the provinces of the interior, out of sight of the media and the diplomatic corps, the picture is very different.In February this year, when the citizens of Cafunfo, in the diamond fields of north-eastern Angola, took to the streets to protest at the removal of the diesel generators that had provided their neighbourhood with electricity, the police and security guards opened fire.Fifteen people were reported killed, including a 10-year-old boy and two teenage girls.Police arrested 17 people, three of whom are since believed to have died in detention, while the rest remain in custody without access to family or lawyers.In some remote towns, political opposition groups have faced violence and threats simply for trying to organise party branches.UNITA members, now trying to rebuild civilian structures, told us how soldiers and government supporters had attacked the building where UNITA had set up a new branch office in the town of Kalima, in Huambo province.The attackers allegedly carried automatic weapons; the victims recounted how they broke into the building, tried to burn it down, and assaulted the UNITA officials inside.UNITA was only narrowly defeated by the MPLA in the 1992 polls, and is today the group with the best chance of becoming a political counterweight to the ruling party.Its future as a political party will depend on its ability to mobilise in places like Huambo province, where its core support is based.Free and diverse media are another prerequisite for free and fair elections.Yet the advances in press freedom made in the last few years barely extend beyond the coast.The private weekly papers are difficult to come by outside of Luanda; in any case, a third of Angolan adults cannot read, and few can afford papers that sell on the street for 120 kwanzas (N$9.00).Even in Luanda, editors and journalists operate in fear of harsh libel laws.Felizberto Graca Campos, editor of the weekly Seminário Angolense, recently faced five criminal libel suits after an article that named Angola’s richest men; all of them had government or MPLA connections.Campos received a suspended prison sentence on the first count, was acquitted on the second, and the others are still pending.The government controls the only daily newspaper, and the only terrestrial television station.State media are subsidised to the tune of more than US$30 million a year, a sum far greater than the subsidies paid to other state-owned industries; meanwhile, the private papers battle to survive on meagre advertising revenues.Radio, the most accessible medium in Angola as elsewhere in the continent, is government-controlled in most parts of the country, with private stations broadcasting only in a handful of cities near the coast.Rádio Ecclesia, respected in Luanda as the most reliable source of independent news, recently installed new transmitters and announced it would be starting test broadcasts in other provinces.The media minister, Hendrick Vaal Neto, responded by telling Angola’s Catholic bishops that such transmissions would be illegal.Never mind the fact that Ecclesia has long held a licence valid for the whole country, and that previously it was only technical constraints that confined it to Luanda.This mismatch between positive legislation and questionable practice on the part of the government is a recurring theme in HRW’s Angolan research.The multi-party constitution that came into force before the 1992 elections promised free expression, the right to form political parties, and the right to protest peacefully: in other words, all the freedoms necessary for participation in the democratic process.The return to war eroded those freedoms.Peace may have brought some relief, yet the restrictions that remain are sufficient to undermine the principles of democratic governance.The government of Angola now needs to make sure that opposition leaders and supporters be granted the opportunity to express their views peacefully without fear of reprisals.The government should also lift the remaining restrictions on the private media, and in particular allow non-government radio stations to broadcast throughout the country.Angola’s neighbours, many of which have themselves enjoyed huge advances in personal and political liberty in the last 15 years, need to encourage this often-neglected country to make a reality of the kind of freedoms that are expected in any democratic society.Only when that is achieved will Angola, its neighbours, and the rest of the world, be able to celebrate that the country has, at last, shaken itself free from the legacy of war.Justin Pearce was one of the authors of the report by Human Rights Watch, Unfinished Democracy: Media and Political Freedoms in Angola.