UNDER COVER OF A SOCCER TOURNAMENT, NEW

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