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RR RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0163/01 0471235
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 161235Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3719
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 000163 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/S AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/16/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA VOTER REGISTRATION: PHASE TWO BEGINS AS GRA 
INCREASES FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO ALL POLITICAL PARTIES 
 
REF: 06 LUANDA 1304 
 
Classified By: Amb. Cynthia Efird for reasons 1. 4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Phase two of the Angolan voter registration 
process began on January 15, 2007 as scheduled, with 
operations running smoothly and demand for registration cards 
high. After reviewing experiences during the month-long first 
phase, where over 945,000 were registered, the GRA has 
reevaluated and downsized the number of registration brigades 
needed to successfully carry out the process and based on the 
prospect of 2008 elections, has expanded the registration 
process to include all those turning eighteen by January 1, 
¶2008.  The CNE has revamped and relaunched its election 
process website to include electoral legislation and visits 
of foreign officials, including AF/DAS Carol Thompson. 
 
¶2. (C) At the same time the GRA, as a result of ongoing 
discussions with opposition parties over the past two years, 
has decided to spend over USD 25 Million to support the more 
than one hundred officially recognized Angolan political 
parties.  Parties will receive payments of USD 200,000 each 
to support their voter registration monitoring activities. 
The big winners of this process are the smaller parties that 
never planned to fully monitor voter registration and the two 
largest parties (the MPLA and UNITA) with the necessary 
resources to monitor the registration process.  The big 
losers are the smaller parties with representation in 
Congress that sought to increase their representation in 
Congress (taking seats already held by UNITA and the MPLA), 
but lacked independent funding for their activities.  End 
Summary. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Phase Two Begins Smoothly and on Time 
------------------------------------- 
¶3. (U) The Government of Angola began phase two of voter 
registration on January 15, 2007 as scheduled.  During this 
phase, 509 registration teams, or &brigades,8 will cover 
every municipality in Angola, in comparison to the first 
phase when only 295 brigades registered almost one million 
citizens but were centered in provincial capitals and 
selected main towns.  The Interministerial Commission for 
Elections (CIPE) and the National Electoral commission (CNE) 
evaluated the first phase of the voter registration campaign, 
and concluded that 509 brigades would suffice to complete the 
nationwide voter registration versus the 2000 brigades 
originally planned.  In addition, CIPE announced that mobile 
brigades will only be deployed to reach outlying villages and 
communities towards the end of the registration period.  The 
CIPE also amended regulations to allow all those who will be 
eighteen years of age by January 1, 2008, to register versus 
the original regulation which allowed only those already 
eighteen years or older to register. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
Demand High and Processing Becoming More Efficient 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
¶4. (SBU) Ambassador Efird visited a registration center in 
remote Cuando Cubango Province on January 31, 2007, and while 
the processing itself was fairly smooth, the waiting area was 
crowded and she spoke with a citizen who had waited in line 
seven hours to register.  In Cuando Cubango, the Ambassador 
noted the presence of party monitors as well as the soba 
(village authority) and a clergy representative for identity 
verification as needed.  Ambassador Efird also visited a 
registration center in Huambo province, unannounced, on 
February 7, and found the system working efficiently, though 
many would-be registrants were waiting for long periods in 
line.  On February 6, P/E chief spoke to the director for a 
registration center in the Rangel neighborhood of Luanda who 
verified that the actual registration process was being 
completed in a matter of minutes.  However, in contrast to 
the provincial experience, the director noted that the influx 
of registrants had slowed and there were no lines at her 
particular center.  Embassy Luanda has also received reports 
of local NGO representatives in the provinces successfully 
serving as witnesses for undocumented, but known, individuals 
in order to provide proof of identification. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The CNE recently revamped/relaunched its website 
which can be found at www.cne.gv.ao and contains information 
on electoral legislation, statistics on the 1992 elections, a 
listing of political parties, and the composition of the CNE 
and its legal status.  In addition, it features pictures and 
stories on the voter registration process and articles of 
international visitors to the CNE, including AF/DAS Carol 
Thompson and a delegation of Belgian Parliamentarians.  CNE 
Director Caetano de Sousa informally asked Embassy Luanda for 
feedback on the site and told us that he hoped to have the 
 
LUANDA 00000163  002 OF 002 
 
 
site available in English as well.  De Sousa also told us he 
is working with the CIPE to put the registration tally on the 
website.  Note:  CIPE, at the insistence of the CNE and civil 
society, is re-evaluating how to give more periodic reports 
on the progress of registration throughout the five-month 
long second phase.   No official tally is available at this 
time beyond the just over 945,000 registered in phase one 
(reftel). End Note. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Government Assistance to Party Monitoring 
----------------------------------------- 
¶6. (SBU) CIPE also announced that the GRA would pay each 
official party USD 200,000 to support accredited party 
monitors during the registration process.  Party monitors are 
present in the registration stations and observe the 
registration process.  Major opposition party leaders had 
earlier sought assistance from the Government as well as from 
the US and other bilateral missions for supporting their 
respective party monitors with transportation and meal 
stipends.  An initial GRA proposal that would have supported 
all parties in Congress was widely repudiated as favoring too 
few parties.  The new proposal covers all parties equally. In 
general, party monitors are unpaid, though some of the 
parties are able to provide a small allowance to each monitor 
of between USD 100 and 150 per month.  The parties are 
responsible for providing food and transportation stipends 
for their respective monitors.  Note: Official registration 
brigade workers are paid and provided with transportation and 
meal stipends.  End Note. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Opposition parties met with CIPE Director Virgilio 
Fontes Pereira to discuss the possibility of meal and 
transportation support for their monitors.  In response to 
Pereira,s question on what type of support would be most 
beneficial to parties, the major parties, i.e., those parties 
which actually have monitors, all expressed a desire for food 
and transport stipends.  However, an overwhelming number of 
the 126 Angolan parties wanted a flat payment and thus 
carried the decision.  Thus, the GRA will provide USD 200,000 
per party so each can more fully participate in the 
registration process.  However, most observers do not expect 
that the government will track how the small opposition 
parties spend their money, or require money not spent on 
observation to be returned to the government.  The majority 
of the Angola,s official parties constitute no more than 
&mom and pop8 parties, formed in the 1990s when the 
government gave annual support stipends to parties.  Note. 
Both the MPLA and UNITA, which feel that they have sufficient 
party funds to cover monitoring, were silent during the 
debate.  End Note. 
 
¶8. (U) Doing the Math: Parties with accredited registration 
monitors ideally have one representative per brigade, or 509 
workers.  The average cost of a bus ride in Luanda is USD one 
) two dollars each way and a hot lunch cost about five 
dollars. This amounts to about USD 160 ) 180 per worker per 
month or cost per party of over USD 400,000 for the next five 
months.  There is no assurance that the GRA will provide 
additional payments should the registration period be 
extended. Total Cost to the GRA ) over USD 25 Million (126 
parties at 200,000 each). 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
¶9. (C) The main beneficiaries of the new GRA program are the 
over 100 small parties that suddenly received a USD 200,000 
bonus.  UNITA and the MPLA are also winners in that the 
parties that might have challenged them, the newer 
up-and-coming parties with a representation in Congress which 
were starting to gain traction do not have the funds or 
investors necessary to mount a national presence during 
registration.  These parties (such as the PRS, the PRD, 
PADEPA, etc.) were counting on the government to help finance 
their participation in registration.  They also hoped to use 
the monitoring activity as a way of giving their parties 
national coverage.  The stipends also would have helped give 
party faithful some remuneration for their efforts.  Perhaps 
the biggest winner is the GRA, which by taking an apparently 
open democratic approach (a flat fee for all), acted on 
opposition concerns, in a way that discourages new parties 
that could challenge the MPLA's electoral base (or 
incidentally UNITA,s base). 
EFIRD