MPLA outlines goals to achieve before elections

Angola's ruling MPLA party has laid out 14 tasks it must complete before the country can hold its first national elections since 1992 - a move observers say makes a ballot before 2006 unlikely. Approving a new constitution, passing a new electoral register law and creating an electoral council would be possible by the second half of 2005, the MPLA's information secretary, Kwata Kanawa, told a press conference on Thursday. "That means there's no way there can be elections before 2006," said one political observer. Earlier this week, around 30 opposition groups and non-governmental organisations joined forces in a bid to persuade the government to hold a poll in 2005. Under the slogan "peace without democracy is a fantasy", the Campaign for a Democratic Angola argued that in two years of peace, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' government had done little to improve the lives of Angola's 13 million people, many of whom live in dire poverty. However, the MPLA on Thursday argued that it was unwise to rush through a ballot without laying the proper foundations. "There are unavoidable chores. It is not enough for people to say that they want elections tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We must first complete these tasks and afterwards we can prepare for elections," state newspaper Jornal de Angola quoted Kanawa as saying. He added that the announcement of an election date would only take place "three to six months" before the actual poll, the newspaper added. Among the jobs still to be done were the adoption of a national agenda that would take the country through the next 25 years, as well as the more immediate concerns of establishing basic administrative functions in remote areas, and resettling and registering the returning displaced population. Clearing roads and strategic sites of mines after three decades of civil war, as well as rebuilding basic infrastructure, were also important tasks, the MPLA said.