Angolan opposition seeks to nullify election results

Angola's main opposition party has challenged the results of the national elections that confirmed President Joao Lourenco in office.

"We have taken legal action to annul the elections," said the chairman of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and Presidential candidate Adalberto Costa Junior on Twitter on Friday. 

The electoral commission should recount the votes and publish the results of the vote in August in a transparent manner, UNITA announced. 

Why is UNITA disputing the election results? 

UNITA is refusing to recognise the results of the elections and has filed various complaints to the electoral commission. The party states that there were discrepancies between the party's own count and the commission's tally. 

"The MPLA did not win the election... we have been at peace for 20 years, and we now need to embrace a true democratic rule of law," UNITA leader Adalberto Costa Junior said in an address to the nation streamed on his Facebook page.

Portuguese broadcaster RTP reported that the party had claimed it was 187,000 votes short in Angola's most populous province Luanda. 

The MPLA has been known to exert control over national elections to stay in power, raising concerns of possible interference between opposition parties and civic groups.

Out of the 16 electoral commissioners, four did not sign off on the final results, increasing doubts about the fair and transparent nature of the elections. 

Costa Junior stated he expected the commission as well as the constitutional court to follow up on the claims made by his party. He called for the comparison of the commission's vote count with the party's tally. 

However, the electoral commission issued a statement in which it insists the election was fair and transparent and has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. 

What happened in the Angolan election?

The electoral commission had declared the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) the winner of the election, thereby extending its uninterrupted rule since 1975.

Lourenco and the ruling MPLA party won with 51,7%  according to the electoral commission. The party thus won 124 of the 220 seats in the country's parliament. It did, however, receive fewer votes than in prior elections, making it the tightest election race to date. 

When Lourenco was first elected president in 2017, the party won 61% of the vote.

This time round, longtime opposition party UNITA achieved its best result ever, gaining 44% of votes and 90 parliamentary seats.

Turnout stayed low with 45%, highlighting that less than half of all Angolans registered to vote made use of their democratic right. 

los/rt (AFP, dpa, Reuters)