At a press conference, Liberty Chiaka said that "any attempt to prevent or limit" the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Adalberto Costa Júnior, from this exercise, is unconstitutional.
The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, presented a message to the National Assembly on Monday about the State of the nation, and at the end he stressed that any attempt to reply to his speech was illegitimate.
"Any attempts by someone to make a speech about the State of the nation will be an illegitimate exercise of usurpation of the powers that the Constitution confers only and exclusively on the head of State, who is a singular entity", said João Lourenço.
According to Liberty Chiaka, the Angolan Constitution establishes in its article 40 (Freedom of Expression and Information), that everyone has the right to freely express, disseminate and share their thoughts, ideas and opinions, by word, image or any other means, as well as the right and freedom to inform, to be informed and to be informed without hindrance or discrimination.
"The exercise of the freedom rights contained in the previous paragraph cannot be prevented or limited by any type or form of censorship", the leader of the UNITA parliamentary group also cited.
Liberty Chiaka also highlighted that the Constitution enshrines the right to broadcast, reply and political reply in its article 45, which establishes that political parties represented in the National Assembly have the right to reply and political reply to the executive's statements.
"Any attempt to prevent or limit the Constitutional Right to political response and reply is a serious violation of the Constitution and the law and its authors must be held responsible", he said, stating that "the reply to the message, about the State of nation presented by the President of the Republic will be made by the president of UNITA".
