The deputies of the standing committee of the National Assembly met this Monday to consider and vote on the proposal for the program of the constitutive meeting of the fifth legislature of the parliament and the program of the seminar for the initiation of deputies (2022-2027).
The standing committee is a body that operates outside the period of effective functioning of the National Assembly, and this Monday the program of the meeting was approved, which has as its high point the investiture of the deputies elected on 24 August, as well as the election of the president of the National Assembly and other members of the board.
The next legislature has 220 deputies, of which 124 are elected by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which won the elections, 90 from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), two from the National Renewal Party (PRS), two from the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and two from the new Humanist Party of Angola (PHA).
The constituent meeting of the National Assembly begins with an intervention by the outgoing president, Fernando Dias dos Santos "Nandó", whose current position should be assumed, for the first time by a woman, the Minister of State for the Social Area, Carolina Cerqueira, number 3 of the MPLA lists.
The program for the 16th also includes the consideration of the proposals of the mandate verification commission, the electoral commission, the draft resolution approving the election of the president, vice-president and secretaries of the board of the National Assembly, among other points.
Heard by Lusa, those responsible for the opposition political parties admitted that they were still discussing whether they would take their seats in parliament.
"We're talking about all these issues, about the various possible scenarios and it's a dichotomy between taking [ownership] or not. The discussion is around these two approaches and I think that only on Wednesday will we be able to come up with authority and say what we will do," said Marcial Dachala, spokesperson for UNITA, a party that got twice as much of the seats in previous elections, to Lusa this Monday.
Also the National Renewal Party (PRS) has not yet decided on the inauguration of the deputies.
"It is not known yet, this will be the party's decision. The party has not yet decided in this aspect [deputies' ownership, the PRS is not happy either, because from what happened the PRS was not benefited by the results, but harmed", the party president, Benedito Daniel, told Lusa.
The National Liberation Front of Angola also referred a decision on the inauguration of the deputies to the party structures, while the representative of the debutant PHA, led by Bela Malaquias, said that his party is only waiting for the inauguration day, guaranteeing that his two deputies will have a "big debut" and will have to represent voters with dignity.
Last week, the Constitutional Court (TC) validated the final results of the August 24 general elections, released by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) and dismissed the contentious appeals presented by UNITA and the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola - Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE).
The TC proclaimed the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and its candidate, João Lourenço, as winners with 51.17 percent of the votes, followed by UNITA, with 43.95 percent.
With these results, the MPLA elected 124 deputies and UNITA 90, almost twice as many as in 2017.
The PRS, the FNLA and the newcomer PHA each elect two deputies.
CASA-CE, the National Patriotic Alliance (APN) and P-Njango did not obtain seats in the National Assembly.
The inauguration of the deputies is preceded on Thursday by the investiture of João Lourenço, re-elected President for the next five years.
