Angola’s opposition rejects election figures

Angola’s main opposition Unita party rejects preliminary vote count figures that give the ruling MPLA party victory in this week’s election.

The MPLA has received 51 percent of the vote, against Unita’s 44 percent, with 97 percent of the votes counted, according to the country’s electoral commission.

The MPLA, which has ruled the country since independence from Portugal in 1975, has declared itself the winner and President João Lourenço, who has been in power since 2017, is thus safe if the result stands.

Opposition leader Adalberto Costa Junior demands an international review at a press conference. He says that the party carried out its own vote count, which shows a discrepancy with the official figures.

– We can confirm with complete certainty that the MPLA did not win the election, he says to jubilant supporters.

The African Union and the SADC regional cooperation body have noted some flaws in the election, such as a lack of election observers and biased reporting by state television.

SADC states that the election was peaceful, calm and well organized, but that some polling stations had irregular opening hours.

Some observers fear that the oil-rich South West African country could be thrown into a period of political unrest. Others highlight that even if Unita does not succeed in canceling the election results, the political environment in the country may change, with more opposition politicians taking seats in the country’s parliament.