Talks on election date to resume

Opposition parties in Angola were preparing to resume talks with the government on holding the country's first post-war general election. The main opposition, UNITA, on Monday said the party was awaiting a response to a letter written to the ruling MPLA last Thursday, calling on the authorities to "speed up" preparation for the poll. UNITA's secretary for public administration, Alcides Sakala, told IRIN: "We have not as yet received an official response to our request, but we hope that we can move forward with concrete plans towards the election." He added that a recent proposal by the Council of the Republic, an advisory body to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, recommending that the voted be conducted "no later than September 2006" had shown that the government was "serious" about entrenching democracy in the war-affected country. "In recent weeks President Dos Santos and his cabinet have made positive statements about the upcoming elections, but we have yet to hear when exactly they hope to have the election. In the letter UNITA [and seven other opposition parties] called for substantial plans to be announced, so that we can have an election that is well organised, free and fair," Sakala said. In May the opposition parties walked out of parliament's Constitutional Commission charged with laying the groundwork for the national poll, accusing Dos Santos of deliberately delaying the approval of a new constitution - a pre-condition for scheduling presidential and legislative elections. Sakala said UNITA "would return" to the commission, provided the government "accelerated" drawing up a "firm" electoral timetable. A recently published study by the ministry of territorial administration said Angola would need up to US $430 million to run national elections. It also recommended a preparatory period of 12 months for the simultaneous presidential and legislative ballots, noting that at an estimated US $89.4 million, voter registration was likely to be the most costly item. UNITA has countered that that elections would probably cost a lot more, given the work needed to repair much of transport infrastructure damaged during the 27-year civil conflict.