The president of UNITA, in the opposition in Angola, told Voice of America that he had alerted the Head of State to the social and economic consequences of an increase in the number of municipalities and provinces, in accordance with the proposed Political-Administrative Division (DPA) that he considers it possible for protests to take place on the streets of the country.
Adalberto Costa Júnior calls for a referendum and says that the Government is out of line with the population’s priorities.
Fifteen days after considering the proposal at the Council of the Republic, the leader of the opposition stated, this Tuesday, 3, in Benguela that the flight ahead in the face of the need for local authorities demonstrates a Government that is oblivious to the priorities for Angolans.
In this proposal, the number of municipalities, as the Minister of Territorial Administration highlighted this week, drops from 581 to 325, but even this does not satisfy Costa Júnior, who suggests a referendum to test his skepticism.
The UNITA leader, who says he is not against a serious debate on administrative divisions, highlights that João Lourenço’s response to his appeal in the Council of the Republic was not convincing.
“If with 164 municipalities we can’t have local authorities, we can’t achieve social conditions for families… I don’t believe we can do it with twice as many. The State has not been capable, we first have to empower the citizen, then, if we have money to waste, we do everything, but it is not what it seems. The answer I heard there was that we cannot wait, we are going to have improvements in the area of defense and security”, says Costa Júnior, before highlighting that “we have to be on the streets, with popular pressure, this Government is out of line with the priorities of the population ”.
Be that as it may, the opposition leader recalls that the Council of the Republic, as a consultative body, does not have the powers to deliberate: “They don’t want local power, they don’t want citizenship, that’s why we have subterfuge, but I must warn that the Council of the Republic does not decides nothing, and the idea that he deliberated is being put out there”, warns Costa Júnior.
He indicates that “the President of the Republic himself has said, when it suits him, that ‘this is a mere consultative body, I am not obliged to do what you tell me’, hence I challenge a referendum and we will see that not even ten percent of Angolans agree with this”.
Just this week, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Dionísio da Fonseca, explained that the districts that will have the category of municipalities, including districts and communes, have the infrastructure and human capital for this purpose.
“This will mean that we can present a bill to the National Assembly in the next few days. Therefore, they are territorial districts that already exist, in some cases with employees, with administrative facilities”, explained the government official.
Malanje, Uíge and Lunda Norte should be the provinces with the most municipalities, according to the DPA proposal, which increases the number of provinces to 20, starting from the divisions of Cuando Cubango and Moxico.