The Administrative Political Division and the Angolan electoral system (III)

The Social Sciences and Humanities Laboratory (LAB) of the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN) is carrying out a set of debates regarding the proposed Administrative Political Division, until March 29, 2023. Taking advantage of the opportunity, it seems to us It is important to analyze the impact of this proposed Administrative Political Division (DPA) on the Angolan party system, due to the fact that it generates, above all, a strong impact on small parties that will have to develop certain strategies to ensure their survival.

The new DPA proposal provides for the creation of 581 municipalities, according to the preliminary version presented to the National Assembly on December 7, 2022. In this presentation to parliament, the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MAT) announced the end of the process consultation carried out during the festive season, on January 2, 2023, which prevented effective political participation by Angolan citizens.

For us, the greatest astonishment arose from the silence of the parties themselves, which will be severely affected by the creation of the new administrative unitsbeing forced to install new party representations.

There are currently 164 municipalities in Angola. Thus, the parties will have to create 417 more party representations, which would represent a further increase in financial costs, with rents or the acquisition of new properties, payment of electricity bills from the public network or fuel for the generator, public network or bottled water. , etc. To secure the living space of the parties, it is also vital to hire staff.

Now, if only one employee is hired for each new representation, we will have a total of 417 new hires. If the parties opt for two or three employees, we will have 834 or 1251 new hires, respectively.

Looking at the minimum wage in Angola, currently 32,181 thousand kwanzas (60.20 euros), the parties would have a minimum monthly cost of 13,419 (25,103 euros) and, annually, 174,453 kwanzas (326,344 euros), with the new 417 employees . Looking only at the cost estimates for new employees, it is natural that the territorial expansion of small parties is postponed.

The MPLA will always gather the necessary means to promote its territorial expansion. Municipal administrators are MPLA staff, so they can provide voluntary work to the ruling party, thus reducing the financial costs associated with this expansion.

The DPA will, therefore, make the healthy development of party organization in Angola unfeasible, through the reduction of the territorial penetration capacity of small parties in a country with the geographic dimension of Angola.

For this reason, in the last elections only two parties (the MPLA and UNITA) achieved representation at provincial level. In this way, the principle of proportional representation enshrined in the 2010 CRA is threatened by ordinary legislation that effectively encourages the creation of a two-party system. It should be noted that the two largest parties in the last electoral act obtained 97.3% of the deputies, precisely 214 deputies (MPLA with 124 and UNITA with 90), out of a possible 220.

The entry into force of the DPA will reinforce bipartisan electoral competition, to the exclusion of small parties, and silence any debate about the direction of multipartyism within an ethnically and socially divided society, where ethnic groups are effective symbolic representations of peoples. and cultures.

The author writes according to the old spelling.