Angola: Parliament elects four UNITA members to National Electoral Commission

The Angolan parliament has approved the election of four UNITA members to the National Electoral Commission (CNE), including William Tonet, thereby completing the opposition party’s representation on the body responsible for organising electoral processes.

The draft resolution was approved on Wednesday during the 5th Extraordinary Plenary Meeting of the 4th Legislative Session of the 5th Legislature, with 162 votes in favour, none against and no abstentions.

In addition to William Tonet, UNITA nominated Domingos Inácio Francisco — whose mandate is being renewed —, António José Ventura and Augusto Samuel.

According to the biography published in the newspaper he founded and edits, Tonet was born into a family linked to the liberation struggle — his father was one of the founders of the MPLA’s 1st Political-Military Region — and grew up, in his own words, as a «child soldier», having been imprisoned whilst still a minor, in 1968, in São Nicolau prison, alongside his father.

In 1977, following the events of 27 May, he was arrested again and began his career in journalism in 1979 at Televisão Popular de Angola (TPA).

He also worked for Portuguese media organisations, including the Lusa news agency, TSF and SIC, before founding the weekly newspaper “Folha 8”, a publication critical of the Angolan government, which he continues to run.

António Ventura is a lawyer and human rights activist, with a degree in Law from the Catholic University of Angola, and a founding member and president of the Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (AJPD).

The election brings to an end a deadlock that had dragged on for over a year, when UNITA refused to appoint its representatives in protest against Parliament Resolution No. 118/24, which defined the new composition of the CNE.

The party deemed the allocation of seats to be «illegal» and appealed to the Constitutional Court, which rejected its claim.

The contested resolution allocated nine commissioners to the MPLA (the ruling party), four to UNITA and one each to the remaining parties with parliamentary representation: the Social Renewal Party (PRS), the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the Humanist Party of Angola (PHA).

UNITA argued that it was entitled to five commissioners, claiming that the allocation—based solely on the number of individual seats held by each party—under-represented the opposition in relation to its overall electoral performance.

In July 2025, 11 of the 16 commissioners appointed by the parties — representatives of the MPLA, the PRS and the FNLA — took office, leaving the four seats allocated to UNITA and the one allocated to the PHA unfilled.

Wednesday’s appointment follows a favourable opinion issued on 6 August by the parliamentary committees on State Administration and Local Government and on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, approved by 20 votes in favour, with no votes against and no abstentions.

During the same sitting, the plenary unanimously approved the election of members to the Provincial and Municipal Electoral Commissions, nominated by the MPLA, UNITA and the FNLA.

The CNE is an independent body that organises, coordinates and conducts electoral processes in Angola.

The plenary consists of 17 members — 16 appointed by parliament by an absolute majority, and a judge who chairs the body, selected through a merit-based competition and appointed by the Superior Council of the Judiciary. The mandate is for five years, renewable for a further five years.