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O 211648Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5902
INFO SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L LUANDA 000031 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/21/2020 
TAGS: AO ECON KDEM PGOV PINR PREL
SUBJECT: UNDER COVER OF A SOCCER TOURNAMENT, NEW 
CONSTITUTION SURGES TO FINISH LINE 
 
REF: A. LUANDA 13 
     ¶B. LUANDA 2 
 
Classified By: ADCM Jason Smith for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
 
1.(C) SUMMARY:  Tossing out its own measured timeline for 
creating a new constitution, the government raced the new 
constitution through the National Assembly, and gave final 
approval with 186 out of 220 votes today, January 21.  The 
new constitution is now only a presidential signature away 
from taking effect.  The main opposition party UNITA walked 
out of the preliminary vote on January 20 and was a no-show 
for the January 21 fianl vote, over simmering objections to 
both the process and content.  A review of the draft 
constitution, first released publicly on January 18, calls 
for a presidential election system whereby the top candidate 
on the parliamentary candidate list of the party that 
receives the most votes in parliamentary elections becomes 
President.  The new constitution will concentrate power in 
the hands of the President, by eliminating the office of the 
Prime Minister and replacing it with a Vice President 
selected by the president after the election, and by granting 
the President the right to appoint judges, both without 
approval from the National Assembly.  The ruling MPLA has 
tried to deflect criticism by promising to submit the final 
constitution to the Constitutional Court for "approval," but 
in reality that body does not have the authority to make 
changes or prevent President Dos Santos from signing it into 
law. Some observers believe the government pushed the new 
constitution now to take advantage of the distraction created 
by the football tournament.  Although each country has the 
sovereign right to define its governance structure, the new 
constitution's focus on increasing even more the president's 
powers is a step away from the democratic principle of 
separation of powers.  END SUMMARY 
 
2.(U) On January 20, the National Assembly, sitting as the 
Constitutional Assembly, approved article by article the 
244-article document, as recommended by the Assembly's 
Constitutional Commission (ref A). Protesting both the 
process and the substance of the new constitution, UNITA 
walked out of the session, while the other opposition parties 
stayed.  On January 21, the National Assembly sitting in its 
own right passed the constitution with 186 out of 220 votes, 
which now awaits only the President's signature to take 
effect.  All UNITA parlimentary members protested the January 
21 vote by refusing to show up to the National Assembly. 
 
3.(C)  In a January 21 conversation with A/DCM, UNITA Party 
Leader Isaias Samakuva was resigned that UNITA had "exhausted 
all democratic options" to protest what it saw as repeated 
violations of "proceedural norms for constitutional review" 
under Articles 153-157 of Angola's existing Constitution Law. 
 Samakuva stated that UNITA had appealed to the 
Constitutional Court last fall and claimed that the Court had 
validated UNITA's concerns, but that it needed to recieve the 
appeal from the National Assembly before it could take 
action.  Samakuva stated that subsequent written requests to 
both the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Attorney 
General went unanswered.  He noted the MPLA's disengenous 
attempt to deflect criticism over the speed of the process by 
promising to send the final constitution to the 
Constitutional Court for "approval," by explaining that the 
Court at this point could offer an opinion only and could not 
approve or reject the final constitution.  (NOTE Post 
confirmed this limited role of the Court, post National 
Assembly passsage, via a constitutional scholar.)  On next 
steps, Samakuva believed the four remaining mechanisms of 
appeal were all "closed doors," (i.e. the National Assembly, 
President Dos Santos, Prime Minister Kassoma, and the 
Attorney General), and would not attempt any of them. 
Instead, he waxed philosophic, noting that this was just 
antoher hardship in a long history of hardships that UNITA 
would eventually overcome.  The party's strategy now, 
according to Samakuva, would be to regroup, and educate 
people at the grass-roots level on democracy and governance, 
so "the next generation of Angolans would not be fooled." 
 
4.(U) In a statement by Alda Sachiambo, leader of the UNITA 
parliamentary group, at the opening of the January 20 Special 
Session of the National Assembly, UNITA underscored its 
position that the National Assembly is constrained by 
existing law in shaping the new constitution.  UNITA defined 
the limitations as follows: 
 
     -- the land is the right of the people; 
     -- the national symbols (meaning flag, anthem and 
emblem) must represent the democratic government of Angola, 
not the government from the era of the single-party state; 
     -- the people have the right to elect the president 
through direct suffrage using a specific ballot that is to be 
deposited in a specific ballot box; 
     -- the constitution must observe without subterfuge or 
amibiguity the principals of direct election and of 
separation of powers, per Article 159 of the Constitutional 
Law; and 
     -- the National Assembly does not have the power to 
legitimize the political power of the sitting president 
beyond the law and the national will. 
 
The UNITA leader asked rhetorically if the majority has the 
power to exercise it without constraint, then where is 
ability to keep the majority from eliminating democracy 
itself? 
 
5.(U) Some key features of the draft text provided publically 
on January 18 includes: a limit of two five-year terms for 
the President; indirect election of the President via a party 
list (i.e. the head of that party's list which recieves the 
most votes becomes President); abolition of the Prime 
Minister and creation of a Vice President chosen by the 
President, without consent of the National Assembly, after 
his/her election; state control of the land, with concessions 
granted only by the state and only to Angolan nationals or 
entities; the President appoints judges to the Constitutional 
and Supreme courts, as well as the Court of Audits, all 
without review or consent of the National Assembly; 
retroactive application of the constitution, and the powers 
thereof, to the current sitting President of Angola, and 
maintaning the current national flag, which is similar in 
appearance to the MPLA party flag. 
 
¶6. (U) On January 20, a group of civil society organizations 
released a statement, declaring that the government's 
acceleration of the constitution process violated the rights 
of the citizens and was disrespectful of the basic norms of 
political ethics.  The statement points out that the 
Constitutional Commission's announced timetable for the new 
constitution included a period (January 5 - February 20, 
2010) for public review and comment on the draft and a period 
(February 21 - March 22, 2010) for discussion and voting by 
the National Assembly.  The statement adds that the text of 
the draft document first became publicly available on January 
18, as a supplement in the Jornal de Angola.  The Assembly 
started voting on the document on January 20, and, as a 
result, the government's own timeline for the constitutional 
process was ignored. 
 
¶7. (C) COMMENT: The rational behind Dos Santos's decision to 
violate the government's own widely published and measured 
timeline for the constitutional process is unclear.  Some 
argue that he wanted to conclude the process while everyone 
was preoccupied with the Africa Cup of Nations football 
tournment, which Angola is hosting.  Others argue that the 
President is eager to put into place a new, supposedly much 
reduced new government.  Whatever the rationale, this 
dramatic acceleration of the process in fact has denied 
Angolans an opportunity to engage in the process during the 
final stages.  Once the football stadiums have fallen silent, 
more Angolans will come to realize that they have been left 
out of the constitutional process, a reality that has already 
displeased some Angolans. Regardless of the opinion of the 
Constitutional Court, should the National Assembly choose to 
forward the final constitution to it, the President is 
expected to sign the new constitution into law.  Meanwhile, 
post has provided Af/S draft press guidance. 
 
 
MOZENA