LUANDA, Angola
Angola on Thursday eagerly awaited the outcome of the most tightly contested vote in its democratic history, with early results showing a wide margin for incumbent Joao Lourenco but the opposition also claiming a lead.
Ballot counting began after
polls closed on Wednesday in the oil-rich nation, where multi-party polls were
only introduced in 1992.
Preliminary results published
overnight by Angola’s electoral commission gave the ruling People’s Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) 60.65 percent of the vote with 33 percent
of ballots counted.
The main opposition the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by charismatic
leader Adalberto Costa Junior was at 33.85 percent.
The MPLA has ruled Angola for
nearly 50 years after the country gained independence from Portugal.
Lourenco, a Soviet-educated
former general who had promised a new era for the southern African nation when
he succeeded veteran leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos five years ago, has
trumpeted a list of achievements.
He is credited with making
far-reaching reforms, including boosting financial transparency and efficiency
in parastatal organisations, fighting sweeping nepotism and corruption, and
promoting business-friendly policies to lure foreign investors.
But UNITA’s deputy leader Abel
Chivukuvuku said the party own tally showed it was ahead.
“Our poll counting centres …
give us clear provisional indication of a winning trend for UNITA in all
provinces of the country,” he told a live streamed night conference. “We are
confident, calm and tranquil”.
The MPLA traditionally wields
a grip over the electoral process and state media and opposition and civic
groups have raised fears of voter tampering.
Results in past elections have
been contested, in a process that can take several weeks.
The election has been
overshadowed by Angola’s many woes — a struggling economy, inflation, poverty
and drought, compounded by the death of a former strongman president.
More than 14 million people
were registered to vote.
Angola is Africa’s second
largest crude producer, but the oil bonanza also nurtured corruption and
nepotism under dos Santos, who died in Spain last month.
The low-key, night-time
repatriation of his remains in the final leg of campaigning has added a macabre
touch to the election.
Dos Santos will be buried on
Sunday, which would have been his 80th birthday. - AFP
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