Luanda — The opposition UNITA party's parliamentary bench on Monday pledged to withdraw from the Constitutional Court (TC) its legal challenge of the appointment of an MPLA MP as 2nd Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly.

The information was made public by the UNITA´s whip, Liberty Chiyaka, at the end of the parliamentary leaders' conference which decided to hold an extraordinary plenary meeting to elect the new composition of the Parliament´s main organs, on the proposal of the Parliament Speaker, Carolina Cerqueira.

In the parliamentary leaders' conference, headed by the Parliament Speaker, Carolina Cerqueira, the MPs decided that the MPLA, which has the highest number of MPs, will hold the 1st and 3rd position of vice-Speakers, while the opposition UNITA will be in charge of the 2nd and 4th positions of vice-Speakers.

"With this decision, we'll forward to the Constitutional Court a request for withdrawal of the process. With this extraordinary plenary session, the parliamentary conflict on the composition of the National Assembly's presiding board comes to an end", Liberty Chiaka stressed.

The MPLA Parliamentary Bench in September 2022 had appointed MP Américo Cunonoca as 1st vice-Speaker and the MP Raúl Lima as 2nd vice-Speaker.

UNITA did not take part in the discussion and voting session of the above-mentioned issue since all its MPs left the parliamentary hall and in the same month, they filed in the Constitutional Court a challenge to the resolution that confirms the MPLA MP as 2nd vice-Speaker of the National Assembly (parliament).

UNITA, which is represented in parliament with 90 MPs, had been complaining that the post of 2nd vice-Speaker and 4th vice-Speaker of the National Assembly should be given to its parliamentary group.