Luanda — The National Electoral Commission (CNE) started on Wednesday, in Luanda, the delivery of credentials for delegates representatives of the eight political organisations contesting for the August 24 elections.
Manuel Pereira da Silva, president of the CNE, handed over the credentials of the delegates of Luanda Municipality. identical acts will take place in all of the country's municipalities.
Speaking to the press, Lucas Quilundo, CNE spokesman, highlighted the symbolism of the ceremony, which he considered very representative.
Quilundo pointed out that the delegates are not electoral agents, but have a great responsibility in the process of supervising the elections, which includes opening the ballot boxes, the voting process, the counting of the votes, the preparation of the minutes, presentation of possible complaints, and even the signing of the minutes of the ballot and the right to obtain a copy of the same, as determined by the law.
According to Lucas Quilundo, delegates play a crucial role in the process of making the elections credible and ensuring the integrity of the process.
Lucas Quilundo explained that a total of 276,641 delegates have been registered all over the country, being for MPLA 52,517, UNITA 51,620, CASA-CE 33,221, PRS 29,534, FNLA 34,331, PHA 28,580, P-NJANGO 16,868 and APN 29,970.
The CNE official appealed to voters to continue to adopt an acceptable civic conduct, and avoid any kind of behavior that could jeopardize the process.
Reaction of political parties
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UNITA's representative, Horácio Junjuvili, welcomed the act, since it helps to make the process credible, having stressed the need for the electoral roll for each polling station to be published.
The CASA-CE representative, Carlos Jacinto, also stressed the importance of the step taken by the CNE, since the law requires that it must be taken at least 10 days before the elections.
The PHA representative, Simba Luwawa, emphasised that the law has been clearly complied with, but recalled that the CNE must also comply with the requirement of publishing the list of voters for each polling station.
Tiago Soares, APN's representative, considered the act a huge step taken by the CNE as being one more element to give credibility to the process, adding that there is still time to correct possible errors and omissions.
Roberto Soki, of the FNLA, said that, in principle, the party is ready to supervise the elections, throughout the national territory.
Pedro Neto of the MPLA party emphasised that his party managed to register a delegate and a substitute for each polling station, and that their work helps to avoid some of the suspicions that are generally raised in this process.
Pedro Neto also said that the success of the work also depends a lot on the professionalism of the delegates.
At least 14.3 million voters are expected to cast ballots on August 24 elections with some 22, 560 residing abroad.
