The reaction comes following the extraordinary plenary session, in which the proposal to create a possible commission was deliberated to deal with the initiative of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to remove the President of the Republic, which was rejected with 123 votes against and one abstention.
The spokesperson of the National Assembly, Manuel Dembo, highlighted that UNITA deputies "have duties and obligations and not just rights as they seek to claim" and appealed to "a sense of State and respect for constitutionally enshrined democratic rules".
He also highlighted that deputies must base their actions on a deep connection with the Constitution, the rules of procedure and parliamentary ethics.
The plenary session took place in a tense environment with deputies from the two largest parties – Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and UNITA differing over the voting method proposed by the president of the National Assembly, Carolina Cerqueira.
UNITA intended a secret vote, as a way of ensuring that all deputies could vote freely, but this intention was contradicted by the MPLA.
The plenary session took place behind closed doors, but several UNITA deputies shared videos on social media showing the tense and noisy atmosphere, with members of this parliamentary group showing their discontent and shouting "down with the dictatorship" and "shame".
The MPLA declared, through the voice of its secretary for political and electoral affairs, João de Almeida Marins "Ju Martins", that the process is closed, while the president of UNITA, Adalberto da Costa Júnior, understands that "there was no resolution at all" and that “what happened is not in accordance with the law”.
The initiative of the UNITA parliamentary group was publicly announced in July this year, presenting as grounds the serious violation of the Constitution of the Republic, for an attack against the Democratic Rule of Law, through the subversion of budget execution rules, the market economy and of the republican system, as well as the practice of corruption, embezzlement, influence peddling and repeated practice of nepotism.
The document, with around 100 pages and more than 200 articles, was signed by 90 UNITA deputies, identifying more than 200 documentary pieces of evidence and naming 40 citizens as witnesses.
The parliament has 220 deputies: 124 from the MPLA, 90 from UNITA, two from the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), two from the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and two from the Humanist Party of Angola (PHA).
