Angola’s opposition casts doubt on 2012 elections

Angola’s main opposition party Unita has expressed doubts over whether the country can hold free and fair general elections in 2012.

“The climate for fair, democratic and transparent elections does not yet exist in Angola,” said Unita general secretary Anastacio Ruben Sicato, ahead of the party’s 11th congress on 13-17 December where it will choose a candidate for next year’s presidential poll.

Control of the media by the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was to blame, Sicato told AFP, as it meant “a lack of public debate between MPLA and the opposition in the national media on questions that concern the Angolan people”.

Along with RNA national radio, Angola’s two public television channels TPA1 and TPA2 are regularly used by President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and his government to generate propaganda.