Angolan parliament backs down and accepts UNITA proposal for second vice president

The Parliament of Angola resumes on Friday the election of the final composition of the National Assembly in accordance with the proposal submitted four months ago by UNITA, which “demanded” the position of the body’s second vice-president.

The initiative of the National Assembly, proposed by President Carolina Cerqueira, was evaluated and approved this Monday at the conference of chairmen of parliamentary groups, as the person in charge said at the end of the meeting.

“Next Friday morning, we are going to hold an extraordinary plenary meeting to propose the composition of the table of the National Assembly, resuming the proposal that UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, the largest opposition party) made in September. … when the organs of the National Assembly were formed,” said Carolina Cerqueira.

For the President of the Parliament, the proposal for a final election of the board of the body “responds to the need” to strengthen “the institutional role of the National Assembly with pluralism and democratic spirit”.

“And, above all, with the opportunity for all of us to contribute, the parties that have seats in this big house in a constructive and conciliatory way that can effectively contribute to strengthening democracy and the institutional role played by the Assembly. played,” he said.

On September 16, 2022, the day of the swearing-in of deputies, UNITA left the plenary hall en bloc during the founding assembly of the fifth legislature for “violating the political obligations” of the MPLA (in power) by “imposing a ‘Second Vice President’ on the Parliament”.

UNITA, which elected 90 deputies in the August 24 general election against 124 from the MPLA, claims that a deputy from its party should serve as the second vice-president of parliament.

“It was a violation of political obligations. We have been doing this since the morning – in fact, the meeting was very long, because there was a long process of consultations between the MPLA parliamentary group and UNITA – and after long hours of consultations, they broke their commitment, “he explained to Luza about this UNITA MP Liberty Ciyaka.

In the absence of UNITA deputies at the plenary session, the deputies of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Américo Kuononoka and Raul Lima, were nominated and elected as the first and second vice-presidents of the Angolan Parliament, respectively, with 123 votes in favor. MPLA and two abstentions from the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA).

MPLA deputies Manuel López Dembo and Rosa Branca Albino were elected to the positions of First and Second Secretary of the National Assembly only with a positive vote from the ruling party.

A few days later, UNITA announced a challenge to the Constitutional Court (CC) of a resolution that approved the election of a second vice-president of the National Assembly appointed and imposed by the MPLA, given that the process was “unconstitutional and without legitimacy”.

This Monday, the President of the Angolan Parliament gave assurances that the body would renew UNITA’s proposal for seats at the table of the National Assembly, namely the second and fourth vice-presidents of the Angolan legislature.

“On Friday, we are going to vote in the plenary, and we think that this will be a fundamental contribution of the National Assembly to the strengthening of pluralism, democracy and a democratic state based on the rule of law,” said Carolina Cerqueira.

The chairman of the MPLA parliamentary group, Virgilio de Fontes Pereira, reacting to the proposal on the final composition of the board of the National Assembly, highly appreciated the initiative of the chairman of this body and considered that “a political country today[segunda-feira] history”.

“We had the opportunity to listen to the proposal of the NA Speaker in the sense that we could resume the discussion and decide on the final composition of the NA table,” he said.

According to him, the MPLA deputy group agreed to understand “that it is time” to finally solve the problem, “which creates restrictions, especially in terms of political perception.”

With this decision, Virgilio de Fontes Pereira added, while welcoming the “prompt agreement” of other parliamentary groups, it “definitely stabilizes the work of the National Assembly’s board and stops annoying Parliament.”

For his part, the president of the UNITA parliamentary group, Liberty Chiyaka, hailed the political courage of the speaker of parliament in agreeing to her party’s proposal, believing that it was a very timely political decision.

“First of all, we want to welcome the political courage of the president on her initiative, as well as the political support provided by the MPLA parliamentary group. past,” he defended.

Regarding the appeal against the election of the second vice-president of the National Assembly in the TC, Chiyaka said that with this decision “the conflict ends” in the parliament and that his party will withdraw the process from the courts.