VZCZCXRO5443
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0535/01 1940332
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 120332Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4883
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 000535 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM AO
SUBJECT: MPLA, UNITA OPT FOR FRESH FACES IN SELECTING 
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES 
 
REF: LUANDA 0471 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Based on the preponderance of new faces on 
candidate lists submitted by the ruling MPLA and main 
opposition party UNITA, National Assembly's membership will 
change radically following the September 5 legislative 
election.  In addition, the political field narrowed 
dramatically when only 10 coalitions and 24 of the 98 legal 
political parties submitted candidate lists for 
Constitutional Court review by the July 7 deadline.  The 
Court will further winnow the number of coalition/parties as 
it assesses the documents submitted by these entities. END 
SUMMARY 
 
Fresh Faces on MPLA, UNITA Parliamentary Benches 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (U) The candidate lists presented by the MPLA and UNITA 
make clear that the Assembly that emerges from the September 
5 elections will be mostly new faces.  The MPLA's list of 355 
candidates includes only 39 members of the current National 
Assembly.  This doesn,t signify a lack of star power - 
President dos Santos leads a list that includes the majority 
of the GRA's MPLA-based ministers and governors, several 
famous artists and athletes, and one of his daughters.  Most 
ministers and governors (and naturally dos Santos himself) 
are not expected to take seats in parliament; rather, their 
inclusion brings name recognition and underlines the MPLA's 
core message of "stick with the team that brought you peace, 
stability and post-war reconstruction."  Candidates were 
selected in closed-door sessions of the party's senior 
leaders, but insiders state that Dos Santos had the final say 
and tweaked the list until the last minute. 
 
¶3. (U) UNITA's candidate list is also full of new faces; only 
20 percent of current deputies remain.  As expected, the 
"dirty 16" of UNITA deputies who split from the party yet 
remained in parliament are off the list; added are 
representatives from civil society, journalists and other 
independent candidates brought in to underscore UNITA's 
campaign strategy of folding diverse opposition elements 
under the UNITA umbrella rather than working out coalitions 
that allow other parties to keep their identity.  In 
deliberate contrast to the closed-door MPLA selection 
process, the majority of UNITA's candidates were chosen by 
votes from attendees at party conferences held in each of the 
18 provinces. 
 
D-Day for FNLA and PADEPA, Close Call for PRS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶4. (U) Discarding all attempts at mediation or 
reconciliation, both wings of the FNLA (currently the fourth 
largest party in parliament), submitted candidate lists in 
the names of their respective party presidents.  Yet to be 
seen is whether the Court will rule one or both factions 
ineligible.  While the FNLA's fissure was well known in 
advance of elections (reftel), Democratic Support and 
Progress Party (PADEPA) leaders received a shock when an 
expelled party member submitted an alternate list of 
candidates mere hours before the deadline.  As there is no 
pending legal action challenging the party's elected leaders, 
PADEPA President Carlos Leitao is hopeful the Court will 
discard the alternate list. 
 
¶5. (U) The leadership battles at PRS, however, appeared to be 
settled when the faction headed by Antonio Muachicungo was 
unable to garner enough signatures to present a candidate 
list.  In the waning hours before the deadline Muachicungo 
announced a coalition with the Democratic Party for Social 
Progress.  PRS President Eduardo Kuangana is hopeful that 
this defection will allow the Court to settle the pending 
legal action in which Muachicungo challenged Kuangana's 
election as party president. 
 
Cutting the Fat 
--------------- 
 
¶6. (U) In a dramatic narrowing of the political field of 98 
legal political parties, only 24 political parties and 10 
coalitions of small parties presented lists of candidates to 
the Constitutional Court by the July 7th deadline.  The 
winnowing is not yet complete; the court must now scrutinize 
the supporting documentation submitted with each party's list 
to determine which parties and coalitions fulfilled the legal 
requirements to participate in September's race, namely the 
gathering of a minimum of 14,000 legal signatures for each 
party.  The Court plans to complete its evaluation by July 
17; parties that do not make the grade will then have two 
days to provide additional documentation or be cut from the 
final list of parties eligible to compete in the elections. 
 
LUANDA 00000535  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: 98 political parties are too many for the 
Angolan political landscape, and the ongoing election process 
is providing a much-needed separation of the wheat from the 
chaff.  We anticipate at most 15 parties - and perhaps as few 
as 8 - and three coalitions will remain standing after the 
Court rules on who has met the legal requirements to run. 
Regardless, MPLA and UNITA remain the big kids on the block, 
and their bringing new blood into the National Assembly is 
the first step towards revitalizing a historically lackluster 
institution.  END COMMENT 
MOZENA