Angola’s ruling MPLA party emerges winner as opposition cries foul

Angola’s ruling MPLA party has won national elections by a clear margin, its electoral commission said on Friday, citing a provisional tally that the two main opposition parties however, rejected. Two days after a ballot that passed peacefully, with almost all votes counted and the public mood predominantly calm, the result maintained the party’s unbroken […]

Angola’s ruling MPLA party has won national elections by a clear margin, its electoral commission said on Friday, citing a provisional tally that the two main opposition parties however, rejected.

Two days after a ballot that passed peacefully, with almost all votes counted and the public mood predominantly calm, the result maintained the party’s unbroken hold on power since sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest economy gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

Tarnished by political cronyism, its share of the vote fell, but President-in-waiting Joao Lourenco retained the strong parliamentary majority he will need to make good on campaign pledges to reform a battered economy.

A former defence minister, Lourenco will become the country’s first new president for 38 years.

The long-time leader he is replacing, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, will, however, continue as head of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

With close to 98 per cent of the vote counted, the MPLA held a 61.1 per cent share against the opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) party’s 26.7 per cent, said National Electoral Commission spokeswoman, Julia Ferreira.

International observers described the election as reasonably free and fair and the streets of the capital Luanda and other cities were calm.

But UNITA said the results had not been gathered transparently and did not tally with its count.

“We reject completely these provisional results,” Raul Danda, the party’s candidate for vice-president, said. “We don’t know where they come from.’’

CASA-CE, a smaller opposition party that polled 9.46 per cent of votes, also rejected the provisional results and said it would release its own tally.

The MPLA, which emerged victorious over UNITA after 27 years of civil war in 2002, dismissed the complaints.