« Back to Provision

Electoral/Political Party Reform – 1998

Over three years following the Lusaka Accord, the Angolan government announced that UNITA was a fully legal political party — with Savimbi at the head of the party.¹

Later in November, the National Assembly voted to repeal Mr. Savimbi’s position as the legal head of UNITA, by removing his official status and office that was granted to him in March. “On 27 October 1998, by a decision adopted by 115 votes in favor, none against and 61 abstentions, the National Assembly abrogated the law granting a special status to Mr. Savimbi as the leader of the largest opposition political party, which was promulgated in accordance with the Lusaka Protocol. This decision was attributed to Mr. Savimbi’s failure to fulfill his party’s obligations under the Protocol.”²

In the last issuance of 1998, MONUA reported that the Angolan government and UNITA forces had continued to perform extensive military operations and that MONUA personnel, under phase IV of their security plan, would be withdrawn from all provinces.³

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program coded the conflict between the Angolan government and UNITA as reaching the threshold of “war” in 1998 with over 1000 total deaths in the year. Coding for this case stops December 31, 1998.

1. “Angola Peace Monitor,” Africa News 4, no. 7, (March 1998).
2. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA),” U.N. Security Council (S/1998/1110), November 23, 1998.
3. Ibid.