The leader of Angola’s main opposition said late on Friday the electoral process had ”collapsed” as he joined smaller parties in calling for a new vote after chaos in the nation’s first poll in 16 years.
”We came to talk with the electoral commission on how they evaluate the situation and what they intend to do because the process has collapsed,” the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), Isaias Samakuva, told reporters after a meeting with the electoral commission.
When asked by a journalist whether this meant new elections should be held, he replied: ”Yes.”
Four opposition parties met the electoral commission after a day of voting in legislative elections, Angola’s first since 1992 when Unita contested results and restarted a civil war that ended in 2002.
The election got off to a shaky start with chaos at several polling stations where election materials failed to arrive. The situation improved through the course of the day, with European Union observers saying it had ”normalised”.
Luisa Morgantini, chief of the EU observer mission, said problems included a lack of ballots and of the ink used to mark voters’ fingers and prevent multiple voting. In some cases, she said, polling officials failed to show up.
”Voting was a disaster in Luanda following woeful organisation,” she said, adding that the situation was better outside the capital, though there also were problems there.
Unita — along with the smaller National Liberation Front of Angola, Party for the Development and Progress of Angola, and Party for Development, Progress and National Alliance of Angola PDP-ANA — met the commission on Friday as voting continued in several areas.
”What we want is the cancellation of this election,” said PDP-ANA chief Sindiangani Mbimbi.
”For us, this election has been a political theatre. In Luanda we have seen [electoral flaws] with our own eyes and we received information from our delegates in the provinces and they gave similar reports,” Mbimbi said.
He added: ”We wanted a credible and peaceful process where all the parties would have equal chances, but in this type of bad joke all the rules have been trampled on.”
Opposition parties have consistently alleged that the electoral process was weighted in favour of the ruling Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA), whose campaign was most visible due to better funding and control of state resources.
More than eight million people in this Southern African nation of more than 16-million were registered to vote. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP