UNITA accuses govt of campaigning prior to elections

Angola's main opposition party, UNITA, has accused the government of riding roughshod over electoral laws as the first post-war election approaches. "The government is using its position of power to campaign, even though the campaign period has not officially started," said UNITA legal representative David Horacio. He confirmed on Wednesday that the party had asked the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of government preparations for the national poll. "There is also evidence that electoral officials are being trained ahead of the creation of a National Electoral Commission (NEC), which is unfair," he remarked. The NEC, once it has been constituted, will be entrusted with overseeing the entire electoral process. UNITA has pushed for elections in late 2005, but the ruling MPLA, which listed 14 tasks to be completed before the country could hold its first ballot since 1992, favours a poll in 2006. President Eduardo Dos Santos is yet to announce a date. The ruling MPLA could not be reached for comment. Horacio stressed that the concerns raised by opposition parties "were not meant to undermine electoral preparations". The former rebel group has also mentioned the question of state funding for political parties to run their pre-election campaigns. Opposition parties had put forward a draft law on political party financing, but it was rejected by the National Assembly after the government argued that funding all registered parties would greatly increase the cost of the elections - there were presently over 140 of them. The estimated cost of running the elections is rocketing. In March the Minister for Territorial Administration, Virgilio de Fontes Pereira, stated that the government had already allocated US $170 million to the first phase of the electoral process, of which $20 million had been set aside for voter registration.