Early results from Angola’s national polls show that the ruling party that has been in power for nearly five decades is leading over the main opposition.
From the 33 percent of the votes counted on Thursday, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) said the first provisional results showed the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) garnered 60.65 percent of the vote cast.
President Joao Lourenco of the MPLA is leading according to CNE. It added that the opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by Adalberto Costa Junior secured 33.85 percent.
UNITA has rejected the initial count as unreliable. Since independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has been run by the MPLA.
Seen as the country’s most competitive in decades, political pundits believe UNITA has brighter chances, considering dissension and frustration with nearly five decades of MPLA rule.
Abel Chivukuvuku, UNITA’s vice-presidential candidate, dismissed the provisional results and said the party would publish its own based on a parallel vote count using the same data as the CNE.
“Tomorrow morning we will have clearer and more concrete indicators and whoever wants to celebrate will … I hope it’s us,” Chivukuvuku said at a press conference.
Some of the first time voters are less than 30 year. Under 25s make up 60 percent of the southern African country.
Angola is Africa’s second-biggest oil producer, but as with many developing nations sitting on oil wealth, decades of pumping billions of barrels of crude has done little for most except jack up the cost of living.
More than half of under-25s are unemployed and many voters were less confident in Angolan democracy.
An activist monitoring group, Mudei Movement, has taken pictures of results sheets at as many polling stations as possible, fearing the fraud that marred past polls.
