Angola’s ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) on Monday savoured an overwhelming victory in the country’s first peacetime election, even with a quarter of the votes still to be counted.
President José Eduardo dos Santos’s MPLA had won 81,6% of the vote, to the opposition Union for the Total Independence of Angola’s (Unita) 10%, with three-quarters of the votes counted by early afternoon, according to the electoral commission.
Final results in the oil-rich country’s first elections for 16 years were expected late on Monday.
Regardless, the state-owned Jornal de Angola headlined ”MPLA eliminates the competition,” as the party, in power for three decades, claimed victory after a chaotic poll.
”The results are in line with out expectations,” MPLA spokesperson Norberto dos Santos told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the elections were transparent and voters could make their choices freely, European Union observers told a press conference on Monday.
”The elections were transparent […] people voted freely and we have not seen any violence during the campaign,” EU observer mission chief Luisa Morgantini said.
Lodging of complaint
Monitors from the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said the vote was ”peaceful, free, transparent and credible” and reflected ”the will of the people”.
The head of the African Union observer team, Benjamin Bounkoulou, also said the poll was ”free, democratic and transparent”, and logistic glitches in Luanda ”cannot compromise the election”.
Opposition parties have slammed the disorder in the elections that got off to a rocky start on Friday, saying there had been many irregularities that impeded the transparency of the process.
Voting in the first elections since a 27-year civil war ended in 2002 began on Friday, but had to be extended to Saturday because of delays and a lack of election registers in many polling stations.
Unita has already lodged a complaint with the national electoral commission, and leader Isaias Samakuva on Sunday threatened to take the matter to the Constitutional Court.
The party’s rejection of the results of the last election, held in 1992 during a lull in the war, plunged Angola back into conflict that raged for another decade.
Smaller opposition parties have also protested.
The parliamentary elections were seen as a popularity test for veteran leader Dos Santos ahead of presidential elections slated for next year.
MPLA spokesperson Norberto dos Santos said the victory was due to the dedication of the party’s three million supporters.
”In every neighbourhood, in every village our supporters are there nearly every day like a priest at a Sunday service,” he told the Jornal de Angola.
The Southern African nation has a booming economy that stems from vast oil and diamond riches, which have fuelled double-digit growth.
However, more than two-thirds of its people remain mired in poverty, living on less than $2 a day. — Sapa-AFP