According to the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the claim arises in protest at the "imposition" by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) of a second vice-president of the National Assembly, who "violates" the principle of proportional representation.
"As representatives of the people, we cannot, on behalf of the people who voted against hegemony and against unpunished violations of the Constitution, let these offenses against the Constitution, custom and laws go unpunished", said this Monday the president of the UNITA parliamentary group, Liberty Chiyaka.
At a press conference in Luanda, Chiyaka said that "the State is not a militia battalion or a military unit, it is a complex of sovereign, autonomous and independent bodies, which are subordinated to the Constitution and founded on legality".
"It is our collective duty to implement and ensure that the Constitution is actually respected, as a supreme law, so the UNITA parliamentary group will challenge the constitutionality of the approved resolution", he assured.
The constitutive meeting of the National Assembly, for the 2022-2027 legislature, last Friday approved a resolution that elected deputy Américo Cuononoca (MPLA) as first vice president of the body and deputy Raul Lima (MPLA) second vice president of parliament.
The election of the second vice-president of parliament, appointed by the MPLA, led to the abandonment of the plenary room of the parliament by UNITA deputies, on Friday night, with arguments that the MPLA had "broken the commitment political".
Liberty Chiyaka recalled that, following consultations between delegations of UNITA and MPLA deputies, the parties agreed that in light of parliamentary representation, 124 MPLA deputies and 90 UNITA deputies, the second vice-president of the body would be the deputy of the his Arlete Chimbinda party, "but that agreement was broken".
For the UNITA politician, the will of the National Assembly to have deputy Américo Cuononoca, appointed by the MPLA, as first vice-president, and deputy Arlete Chimbinda, appointed by UNITA, as second vice-president, "as agreed, "translates the will and the choice of all Angolans".
"This is the essence of political representation theory," he stressed.
"Therefore, a position taken by the leaders of parliamentary groups for the formation of the sovereign body is a binding position of the autonomous internal bodies of the National Assembly, which must be honored and cannot be contradicted by bodies outside the National Assembly", he stressed.
The National Assembly's internal regulations, Chiyaka continued, determine that the final table is made up of the president, four vice-presidents and an equal number of table secretaries, so, he argued, "under the present conditions, the table of the National Assembly is not yet definitive ".
"It doesn't conform to the law, it's not legal and it doesn't have legitimacy, that's the starting point," he pointed out.
He recalled the intervention of the presiding judge of the Constitutional Court (TC), Laurinda Cardoso, in the investiture of the re-elected President of the Republic, in which she "required a new attitude and posture" from João Lourenço in this second term.
"If it is true that Angola, as a Republic, is subject to the Constitution, which is the supreme law, and it is up to the TC to judge in accordance with the supreme law, we put a great test on the Constitutional Court to what extent the words of the TC president were simply circumstances," he shot.
UNITA deputy Mihaela Webba said, on the occasion, that the regiment of the National Assembly of Angola is similar to that of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, referring that the vice-presidents of the Assembly of the Republic in Portugal are elected in accordance with the principle of representation proportional.
"And, therefore, this is what makes sense, in 1992 we had 70 deputies, today we have 90 deputies and the MPLA has 124. The first vice president belongs to the MPLA and the second vice president belongs to UNITA, taking into account the principle of proportional representation", observed the deputy.
Last Friday's constitutive meeting, preceded by the investiture ceremony of the 220 deputies elected in the August 24 elections, also elected Carolina Cerqueira as president of the National Assembly, appointed by the MPLA.
