UNITA accuses Angola to use electoral register to benefit MPLA

O leader of the National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party, spoke to the press in Luanda, after making its proof of life to update its data within the electoral register.

“ The regime party is using the State’s means to make early registration of its own members, a complete illegality with the permission of the institutions involved in this matter,” he said.

Adalberto Costa Júnior denounced the alleged misuse of state vehicles to transport preferably “persons linked to the regime party” (the MPLA-Popular Movement of Liberation of Angola) instead of ordinary citizens with difficulties in accessing the registration sites.

As he said, the Public Service Unit (BUAP), a place indicated for the process, “did not reach the maximum extension of Angolan territory”.

“ We received many requests for the presence of registration spaces in very distant municipalities, I quote the example of provinces with difficulties, in the depths, provinces of Cuando, Cubango, Moxico, Huambo, Benguela, Namibe, which have many distant areas that have no registration post ", said.

The politician reported that in other provinces there is the registration of BUAPs that for months in a row did not work to have identity cards, document necessary for updating the data, considering “fundamental that the Ministry of Justice effectively update this presence with the communities”.

Adalberto Costa Júnior also urged the Government to open the register abroad “as soon as possible”.

“ Unfortunately, the Angolans are abandoning Angola at a very high rate, the reference of the previous record is not good for today because the number has gone off. It is essential that also those Angolans who wanted to seek better living conditions outside – they did not lose their citizenship rights – are able to start the registration update”, he stressed.

For the leader of UNITA, “the high number of Angolans without an identity card, the only document needed to vote, indicating that “the government is not doing its work properly”.

Adalberto Costa Júnior also urged the government to extend the number of electoral registration posts in several provinces, where remote areas are deprived of these spaces.

To Angolan citizens, the opposition leader warned of the need to fulfil this duty, to update the electoral register, “as soon as possible”.

“ Do not leave this action for the last hours, for the last days, for the risks we all know, that these days may have difficulties not having the condition of participation ", said.

Angola will hold its sixth general elections in 2027, and since June 15 this year, the national campaign to update the electoral register until March 31 and next year.

Greater participatory attention on the part of citizens was another appeal of Adalberto Costa Júnior, especially for young people “with very complex challenges”, in order to understand that voting is a factor in improving their own lives.

Official data released in August indicate that more than one million older citizens have already held their proof of life, in a universe of 16 million voters predicted, an indicator for Adalberto Costa Júnior that “the government should increase the number of posts, make a huge logistical effort to bring the registration centers to the communities.”.

For the next few days, the government announced that mobile brigades will be launched to reach citizens in difficult-to-reach areas, enhancing the capacity of the BUAP, and preparing the foreign registration operation, beginning in January 2027.