"A meeting like this in which the public interest is total, the MPLA chose to hold it behind closed doors, proving that it is afraid of the people and the democratic debate," the president of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Adalberto da Costa Júnior, told journalists after leaving the debate.
The extraordinary plenary session was called to consider the proposal to dismiss the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, presented on Thursday by the largest opposition party and which was rejected.
"What happened here is not in accordance with legality (...) We were invited to vote on nothing, there was no resolution, what happened here was nothing", said the political leader, calling for respect for democratic rules.
Adalberto da Costa Júnior highlighted that "the regime is exhausted" and questioned the fact that there was no live broadcast of the plenary session, contrary to what is customary, especially when it was about "discussing an issue of national interest".
He also urged his MPLA colleagues to "not be afraid of democracy" and guaranteed that UNITA remains available to participate in the events of the National Assembly and will be present at the opening of the parliamentary year, scheduled for Monday.
Despite press access to the room being barred, several deputies circulated videos of the session on social media, showing the atmosphere of tension that took place, with opposition deputies raising their fists in the air, shouting "Angola belongs to the people , not from the MPLA", "shame", "dictatorship" and "fear".
Visibly indignant, deputy Joaquim Nafoia, also from UNITA, said that the president of the National Assembly, Carolina Cerqueira, violated the rules as the proposal should be subject to a secret vote.
"They did things as if we were in a banana republic and UNITA cannot agree with this", accused the parliamentarian, highlighting that preventing journalists from accessing the room where the topic was debated was yet another violation of the law.
"Even (Carolina Cerqueira) wanted to prevent the deputies from filming, we don't admit that", he contested.
For deputy Ju Martins, what was at stake were "UNITA's tricks" which, after announcing that it would propose the removal of the President in July, was "simulating the involvement of civil society" and "managing this element" to present the initiative in the day before the opening of the new parliament.
"He did it on purpose", he accused, highlighting that the president of the assembly complied with the rules and called the permanent committee to consider the matter, as was her responsibility.
Specifically, the plenary voted not to create a possible commission on the process of indicting and dismissing the President of the Republic, signed by 90 UNITA deputies, which should prepare a report to continue the process.
"The proposal was received and it was necessary to evaluate (...) the process was approached and exhausted, the initiative was received, the eventual commission was rejected, the process was over", declared Ju Martins, highlighting the massive support of MPLA deputies, who came to "express solidarity and cast their vote against this UNITA maneuver".
As for the fact that the session was not broadcast, he stated that it was due to the works taking place as Angola will host the 147th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIP) at the end of the month.
"We don't have the conditions," he explained.
António Paulo, also from the MPLA, explained that this Saturday's meeting was used to take the decision in plenary whether or not to accept UNITA's proposal.
"According to the rules, a decision is adopted when it gathers an absolute majority of votes, if it is rejected the process dies", said the deputy.
