Luanda - The Constitutional Court (TC) rejected a few days ago the injunction filed by the largest opposition party UNITA, on the grounds of alleged irregularities in the electoral process, ANGOP learnt Monday.
Speaking in a seminar aimed for media outlets concerning the electoral process, the presiding judge of the Constitutional Court, Laurinda Cardoso, said the injunction received a reply a week ago and the parties were notified.
"What happens is that the parties bring the issue to the public to say that they’ve filed a suit, but then they don't come again to say that they have already been given the decision and we don't do it either because, as a rule, the Constitutional Court doesn't make its dispatches public, we only put on the (court’s) website a litigation decision", Ms Cardoso explained.
According to the presiding judge, this is one of the issues that the Court should reflect on, that is the procedures to follow in future because as a rule, she reiterated, the litigation decisions of the TC are published on the website, but the dispatches, which is the case with an injunction, are not, "this is one of the matters (…)".
Data Processing Center
The presiding judge announced the opening on Wednesday of the Data Processing Center, a space reserved for the reception, verification and validation of documents related to the presentation of candidacies for the General Elections.
The magistrate said the TC has been carrying out a set of actions to prepare conditions for the General Elections, set to happen in August this year. She cited as an example the seminar addressed to political parties on “The presentation of candidacies for the General Elections and electoral litigation” held last April.
As regards media outlets, Luisa Cardoso said they play a key role in the functioning of the democratic political regime, especially at such a crucial time as the electoral pre-campaign and what follows.
"It is their (media) responsibility to provide the necessary information for citizens to exercise their right to vote in a free and rational manner'', she noted.
Judge Laurinda Cardoso also noted that political parties, aware of this role, find in the media the ideal channel to present their candidates and get their messages across to citizens, underlining that sometimes the problem is not what people hear, but how they hear it and how the information is transmitted.
With this seminar the presiding judge said the TC intends, in a pedagogical way, to dialogue and provide necessary tools to the different media outlets, so that they can better inform citizens.
