UNITA Says 14 Provincial Results Invalid

Angola’s largest opposition party, UNITA, has declared that 14 of the country’s 18 provinces have not yet delivered results from last week’s elections in accordance with the law.

UNITA’s intervention comes a day after the National Election Commission declared that the provincial verification process had been concluded, following voting on 23 August. Yesterday, the Constitutional Court also ruled against a complaint lodged by the Coalition for the Salvation of Angola (CASA-CE), which also ran in the elections. CASA-CE, like UNITA, demanded that CNE tally the votes in each province according to the electoral law.

“The provincial verification carried out in terms of [the law] happened only in the provinces of Cabinda, Uíge, Zaire e Malanje,” UNITA’s Political Commission said in a statement issued on Thursday.

The statement added that the verification process conducted in two further provinces, Benguela and Moxico, could not be considered conclusive.

“In the provinces of Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Bié, Huambo, Namibe, Cunene, Cuando Cubango, Huíla, Bengo and Luanda, the provincial verification in accordance with legal obligation has not yet been done, so these results are invalid,” UNITA stated.

UNITA called upon the Provincial Electoral Commissions (CPEs) to respect the law “for the legitimacy of political power and the sanctity of constitutional democracy are at stake”.

The UNITA statement refutes the CNE’s accusation that UNITA representatives had not been present during the verification process in all provinces. UNITA said its delegates had been present “but did not sign the tallies in view of the fact that the procedures employed were not in conformance with the law.

The statement condemned the “partisanship” of Angola’s state media in their reporting of the dispute over the results.

On Wednesday, CNE spokesperson Júlia Ferreira said the national commission had received definitive tallies from all provinces and would proceed with issuing a definitive national result.

According to provisional results announced by the CNE, the MPLA won the election with 61,10%, while UNITA gained 26,71%, CASA-CE 9,46%, PRS 1,33%, FNLA 0,90% and APN 0,49%.

Comentários