"We are going to return to all the provinces, where delegations left for the last four days and talked to the living forces of civil society, and from that debate came the resolution that we must not be outside the institutions, and that is why the deputies will take office in the Friday", said Adalberto da Costa Júnior, at a press conference in Luanda, when asked if he will be taking over João Lourenço's inauguration on Thursday.
"From this debate it was clearly verified that the single party in power is an enemy of Angola and its development, and all democratic and constitutionally foreseen ways must be used to end the single party in power and end the coups d'état in the elections and electoral illegitimacy, which is what just happened in this country", added the UNITA leader.
He stressed that participants in a democratic process must have the ability to recognize their results, recognize victory when not won, recognize victorious opponents. "When the processes are illegitimate like this, naturally they are not waiting for our presence", he said regarding his participation in the inauguration of the elected President, João Lourenço (MPLA).
"We are facing a self-attributed legality and a lack of illegitimacy", he reinforced, insisting that UNITA will be part of the institutions so that the institutional channels and outside of them are used.
He admitted, however, that there was a division of positions in the face of the inauguration, in a context of "a lot of emotion, a lot of pressure", between those who alleged the issue of illegitimacy and the "assault on power" and those who understood that they should "controlling emotions, pushing for reason and hoping that the regime understands the sense of punishment it has been subjected to and realizes that it has to carry out reforms".
UNITA, he added, "will privilege reforms that can bring about a country capable of embracing the development of the democratic rule of law, full freedoms and the possibility of having an economy that can develop".
Asked whether UNITA deputies will also look into the benefits granted to parliamentarians and which many consider excessive, he said that this is a matter to be discussed within the National Assembly and that deputies will seek to "defend ethics".
"In particular after a campaign that showed us in a substantive way that we have a country of complete exclusion, extreme poverty, unemployment and despair, particularly among the youth. Therefore, deputies must be sensitive to this reality", he replied.
The presidents of the Social Renewal Party (PRS), National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the Humanist Party of Angola (PHA) will participate in the investiture ceremony of the re-elected President of the Republic, João Lourenço, following the general elections on 24 of August, scheduled for this Thursday, party sources confirmed on Wednesday.
Benedito Daniel, president of the PRS, which in the fifth Angolan elections elected two deputies, told Lusa on Wednesday that he had already received the invitation and that he would be present at Praça de República, in Luanda, for the ceremony.
According to the politician, re-elected deputy for the fifth legislature, the decision to attend the inauguration ceremony of João Lourenço was approved at a meeting of his party.
"All because we were not present at the [investment] ceremonies held in 2012 and 2017, and so, this time, the party leadership decided to be at this 2022 ceremony", he argued.
The president of the FNLA, Nimi a Simbi, confirmed to Lusa that he will also be present at the investiture of the President and Vice-President.
"Yes, we received the invitation and we will be there in this act, as well as we will be present at the inauguration ceremony of the deputies [scheduled for Friday] in the National Assembly", he stressed.
Nimi a Simbi stated that he goes to the parliament's headquarters to participate in the process of welcoming and initiating the deputies of the fifth legislature, a kind of internal register, encompassing the 220 elected deputies.
The leader of the FNLA, who elected two deputies to the new legislature, also mentioned that his party is demarcating itself from demonstrations and that it will not enter the "wave of contestation of the electoral results", as it does not have the summary minutes available to compare the results.
"As you know, the complaint of our list delegates persists, we have already had some of our offices vandalized, and they, while they have not received their payments, do not want to deliver the minutes to us, the rest is for history", he shot.
A PHA source told Lusa that its president, Bela Malaquias, will also attend the inauguration of the President.
According to the final tabulation minutes of the August 24 general elections, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and its candidate, the outgoing President, João Lourenço, won with 51.17 percent of the votes, followed by the UNITA, with 43.95 percent.
With these results, the MPLA elected 124 deputies and UNITA 90 deputies, almost double the 2017 elections.
The PRS won two seats in parliament with 1.14 percent of the vote, the same number of deputies that won the FNLA and PHA, with 1.06 percent and 1.02 percent of the vote, respectively.
The CASA-CE coalition, the APN and the P-Njango did not obtain seats in the National Assembly, which in the 2022-2027 legislature will have 220 deputies.
