By: Dionisio Antonio
Marcolino Moco considers that the “revolt” against the Angolan regime “walks in the face of many people” and if the “sensible” men of the MPLA do not stop the “coup d’état” they will not be able to stop the “revolted population”.
For the former prime minister, the majority of Angolans are disillusioned with the official election results, which gave the MPLA an advantage (in power since 1975), because these data do not correspond, in his view, to the popular will in the August 24 elections.
“We are all sad, but it is clear to everyone who won [as eleições] and there is a coup, I call it a coup d’état. By the way, as a jurist, I say that this coup [de Estado] started in 2010, when a President of the Republic was created who does everything, but does not answer to anyone”, said Marcolino Moco in an interview with the agency Lusa.
“And now it ended with the theft of votes from the opposition, especially UNITA/FPU [União para a Independência Ttal de Angola / Frente Patriótica Nacional] and then soldiers took to the street with armored vehicles”, in an “exhibition on the day of the inauguration in which the faces of the President of the Republic and everyone who was there were so sad”, he said.
The “sad faces” present at the investiture ceremony of Angolan President João Loureço, re-elected for a second term, he stressed, “clearly indicated that they stole the opposition’s votes”.
“So no one is glad that power is taken in this way by the display of forces where the opposition had the good sense not to fall into the trap of pushing the people to their deaths,” he said.
Marcolino Moco warns that “there will be a day”, if the Angolan regime persists in this path in which “which goes against the popular will, no one will be able to stop the angry population”.
“As I say, there will be a day, if, if you persist on this journey, if the honest and sensible men of the MPLA do not put an end to this type of attitude, there will be a day when neither Adalberto (Costa Júnior, president of UNITA) nor Filomeno ( Vieira Lopes, president of the Democratic Bloc), nor Abel (Chivukuvuku, coordinator of the political project Pra Já Servir Angola, which makes up the FPU) will be able to stop the angry population”, he pointed out.
Because, he pointed out, “the revolt is on the faces of many people, it is visible, even here before we arrive we see the faces and no one can be happy in a situation like this, it is not power, I for example have no ambition for any more power.” ”.
But, “I am sad because, with this type of regime, the country will never advance, we, with the advanced age that we already have, will die sad because we do not know how to leave a viable country for our children, for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren”, lamented.
João Lourenço was re-elected Angolan President, for the 2022-2027 legislature, following the fifth Angolan elections won by the MPLA and contested by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition party), which elected 90 deputies and was failed. its electoral dispute appeal.
After the elections, the Angolan authorities decreed a state of combat readiness for the defense and security forces, with a considerable presence in the streets of armed men and war material.
The president of UNITA, the Angolan opposition, said last Saturday that “the price of power is not worth everything, it is not worth the bloodbath of the people”, in response to those who intended to see UNITA on the street to conquer the institutions.
Adalberto Costa Júnior, who was speaking today at the end of a march promoted, in Luanda, by his party, in favor of “hope, freedom and non-partisanship of institutions”, said that “the people know who won the elections”.
The president of UNITA said that his party and partners were pressured to take to the streets to win over the institutions, after the official publication of the results of the elections, which gave the MPLA victory.
“There were many, those who expect from us the voice of the street as the way to conquer the institutions, there were many who pressured us and expected us to give voice to demonstrations at a time when we had the streets full of repression”, he said.
The former prime minister of the Republic of Angola and MPLA activist praises Adalberto Costa Júnior’s retreat from moving forward with street actions.
“It seemed that they were prepared to repeat the 27th of May [de 1977, data de um alegado golpe de Estado falhado que causou milhares de mortos] or repeat a 92 [reinício da guerra civil]because of the maintenance of power, I think it was very well thought out on the part of Adalberto and his partners when embarking on always peaceful forms of struggle”, he said.
“Because what is at stake is not just taking power, but saving Angola from the carnage, which has already been customary, saving Angola from integrity, which is the little that exists and that works, and so this sacrifice deserves to be praised”, he pointed out. .
Marcolino Moco, who declared his support for UNITA in the electoral campaign, dismissed criticism of the fact that opposition deputies had taken their seats in parliament.
Who is to blame, he argued, “is the one who sets up a CNE (National Electoral Commission) with a Manico (nickname of the president of the CNE) in front, who everyone knows what his profile is”.
“Who is to blame for setting up a Constitutional Court headed by a lady who is a member of the political bureau (of the MPLA) and only suspended (the militancy), it is the latter who is to blame and it is not UNITA, but here it seems that the things”, he stressed.
In the opinion of this historical militant and leader of the MPLA, the absence of Adalberto Costa Júnior in the investiture of João Lourenço, “is normal” because the situation “was not pleasant” due to the fact that they were “robbed of their votes”.
Because, he justified, “it is not pleasant in that shock in all of us, in which votes were stolen, for an individual to appear there, but that does not mean not recognizing the President of the Republic”.
“When there is a coup d’état in a country, we have to recognize who took power by force, because if not, at least we won’t eat, we won’t walk, because we will be victims of retaliation”, he added.
The former executive secretary of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) also considered the presence of UNITA in parliament and in the Council of the Republic to be relevant because it is there “where the struggle for the proper functioning of the institutions must continue”.
“So, the best joy to give the system is for UNITA to appear in the elections and after the elections, even if stolen, not to participate in the institutions and then we would have great joy from the system that would naturally return to the one-party system, which has already ended in 1992,” he noted.
This problem “is not just UNITA’s problem, it’s a problem of a system that proclaims democracy and doesn’t have the courage to say that it is a dictatorship and with a certain cowardice it proclaims a democracy where it doesn’t exist, so that’s the importance of UNITA and who can participate in the institutions to defend them”, concluded Marcolino Moco.
