VZCZCXRO9782
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #1235/01 3320611
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 280611Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3504
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 001235 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
¶E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SOCI KMDR AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA - ELECTORAL PROCESS NOVEMBER UPDATE 
 
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¶1. (U) SUMMARY 
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--Registration Process Drawing Crowds 
--Observers Slowly Becoming Accredited 
--Some Minor Glitches 
--Too Many Political Parties in Angola? 
--National Council for Social Communication Constituted 
 
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Registration Process Continues Apace 
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¶2. (U) The GRA staged major publicity campaigns to encourage 
potential voters to participate in the registration program, 
resulting in thousands of people lining up daily during the first 
week of registration. The GRA is distributing large quantities of 
leaflets and posters in all urban centers, along with T-shirts, 
baseball caps and flyers.  Private and state-run media services 
continue to run government paid advertisements encouraging 
registration.  During week one of the registration process, the 
government daily Jornal de Angola ran daily human interest stories 
featuring testimonials of young Angolans who have successfully 
registered to vote, as well as focus pieces on electoral brigade 
workers. 
 
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Observers Slowly Becoming Accredited 
------------------------------------- 
¶3. (SBU) NGO groups have succeeded in the past week in receiving GRA 
accreditation for additional observers in the provinces.  According 
to information provided to the Embassy by the National Democratic 
Institute (NDI), the number of accredited observers in the provinces 
increased from 37 on November 15, the first day of the registration 
process, to 128 observers in seven provinces by November 22. 
Angolan NGOs have had difficulty in securing the timely 
accreditation of observers as the National Electoral Commission 
(NEC) issued instructions on the observer accreditation process less 
than one week before the registration process began.  In addition, a 
pre-requisite for accreditation is a police clearance - a legitimate 
requirement, but one which can take weeks or months to secure and 
which costs between USD 25-40, a significant financial burden for 
some groups.  Comment: While the GRA is encouraging observer 
participation, it didn't focus on this issue early enough in the 
registration campaign preparations to allow sufficient ramp-up time 
for the NGOs and provincial authorities to be informed on and follow 
the procedures prior to the registration campaign inauguration. End 
Comment. 
 
¶4. (U) Embassy Luanda will also be fielding registration observers. 
Per an official letter from the NEC president, we too will need to 
follow the official accreditation procedures for each of our 
observers as outlined in Angolan law 75/05.  The Dutch Ambassador 
told us that he had received a letter from the NEC expressing 
interest in having EU observers. 
 
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Some Minor Glitches 
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¶5. (U) While the GRA, the opposition and civil society have all 
deemed the registration process a success so far, some minor 
incidents have occurred, many of which have been identified by the 
party election monitors.  In Lubango, Huila province, 18 year-old 
Vasco Daniel was arrested for presenting a forged birth certificate, 
which was detected by a political party monitor on the scene.  PSN 
monitors in Cazenga-Luanda accused brigade agents of extorting Kwz 
500 (about USD 6) from potential voters to expedite registration at 
a crowded registration post.  Cazenga is the largest municipality 
within Luanda with over 1 million inhabitants. 
 
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Too Many Political Parties? 
--------------------------- 
¶6. (U) CNE President Caetano de Sousa warned politicians that 
democracy and good governance were not determined by large numbers 
of political parties participating in an electoral process. 
Speaking at an October 2006 seminar, he noted that "Angola has too 
many political parties, most having the same ideological orientation 
or no orientation at all."  De Sousa called for fewer, but stronger 
political organizations and suggested that most parties form 
coalitions before the elections.  Angola currently has 105 political 
parties registered with the Supreme Court of which 12 parties are 
represented in parliament. 
 
¶7. (U) Angolan law provides parties represented in Parliament annual 
stipends from the GRA based on their number of seats, while the 
remaining 93 parties were allocated $120,000 each in 2006 to assist 
in organizing for the elections.  This is often the only financing 
available to political parties, thus most political parties can not 
afford to have registration monitors at the provincial centers.  Of 
the 105 political parties, only 16 have the capacity to monitor the 
registration process country-wide.  In Luanda, 40 parties were able 
 
LUANDA 00001235  002 OF 002 
 
 
to accredit monitors, but they have had to share accredited monitors 
in most areas outside Luanda. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment:  Minister of Territorial Administration Virgilio 
Fontes Pereira also encouraged the small opposition parties to 
consolidate if they are to have any expectation of political 
influence or power in the future.  Many of the small parties can be 
characterized as "mom and pop" political parties, with a very 
localized base, and no political platform.  Many were formed at the 
time of the 1992 elections in order to qualify for the government 
stipends to parties.  The GRA eliminated stipends to parties not 
represented in Parliament in 1997.  In addition, Angolan electoral 
law requires that a political party collect signatures from each 
province for the party to be registered for the upcoming election. 
This requirement will reduce the number of political parties 
drastically.  End Comment. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
National Council for Social Communication Constituted 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶9. The President of the Supreme Court, Cristiano Andre, swore-in 
members of the newly constituted National Council for Social 
Communication, on October 17, 2006.  The Council will serve as the 
supervisory body on mass media in Angola, and is tasked with 
supervision of all media activities, both State and privately run. 
It also must enforce the new press law regulations.  The Council 
will rule on questions arising on mass media issues and practices in 
Angola.  The Council is made up of 21 members representing the GRA 
(3); the Supreme Court (1); MPLA (7); UNITA (4); PRS (1); PLD (1); 3 
civil society members representing the main churches in Angola, and 
3 journalists drawn from print, radio and television media. 
Efird