Angola’s election commission has said the ruling party of Africa’s second-biggest oil producer is on track to win just over half of the vote in elections, based on a provisional count, although the result is likely to be contested.
President João Lourenço’s Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) garnered almost 52 per cent of votes in Wednesday’s election, with 97 per cent counted, the commission announced late on Thursday.
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), the MPLA’s old rival in a long civil war until 2002, won 44.5 per cent, according to the commission.
However, Unita politicians said on Thursday that they believed the party had won. Analysts said a challenge was likely from the main opposition party amid allegations of rigging.
If confirmed, the result would extend the MPLA’s 47-year rule beyond half a century since independence, but it would mark the lowest vote for the party that staged Angola’s first multi-party elections in 1992.
In the previous elections of 2017 the MPLA reached 61 per cent, down from 72 per cent in 2012. Analysts said the latest ballot has been marred by irregularities such as failures by polling stations to post their results publicly. The commission, however, has said the vote was transparent.
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“Unfortunately, I distrust the [election commission], I distrust the way they conducted this electoral process and I resent the way they completely ignored the numerous irregularities that were reported to them,” said Claudio Silva, a political analyst.
In a parallel vote count tallied by Movimento Cívico Mudei, a civil society group, as of Thursday, Unita also had 52 per cent and the MPLA 44 per cent, although that involved a relatively small number of votes.
Unita’s own parallel count has been slow and “if they do challenge, they will need to provide proof,” Silva said.
