Members of Angola’s parliament for the main opposition UNITA party walked out on Thursday in protest at the composition of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) as proposed by the governing MPLA, with a vote to be held later in the day’s plenary session, after two opposition resolutions were rejected.
The UNITA deputies take the view that the National Assembly’s rules of procedure and the country’s constitution have been violated in the cases related to the dissolution of the mixed parliamentary group made up of the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the composition of the CNE.
The cases were the subject of two requests presented by the leader of the UNITA parliamentary group, Liberty Chiaka, but both were rejected by the parliamentary majority of the MPLA, which has been in power in Angola since 1975.
At Thursday’s extraordinary plenary session, several items were due be discussed and voted on, including laws on rules applicable to price regulation, the legal regime defining electric vehicles and the controversial draft resolution approving the adjustment of the composition of the CNE, which UNITA is contesting.
Last week, parliament passed this draft resolution approving the designation of the number of representatives of political parties with parliamentary seats on the CNE, but without Angola’s largest opposition party, which walked out before the vote because it disagreed with the distribution of the proposed CNE commissioners.
On Tuesday, UNITA called a news conference to clarify its reasons for walking out, at which it accused the MPLA of a “political trick” and demanding that the d’Hondt method of calculating representation be applied to the distribution of seats on the CNE board.
On Thursday morning, UNITA presented two requests in parliament: one concerning the inadmissibility of the dissolution of the mixed PRS/FNLA parliamentary group for allegedly having violated the assembly’s rules of procedure, and the other concerning the composition of the CNE. According to UNITA, the CNE should have eight members from the MPLA, five from UNITA and one from each of the other parties, based on the d’Hondt method; it sought the rejection of the MPLA proposal that there be nine commissioners for the MPLA, which it said “does not comply with the law.”
Both requests were rejected in a vote, with 184 votes against, as the MPLA wielded its parliamentary majority, to loud protests from the UNITA members, who left the plenary immediately afterwards.
Lusa
