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Angola’s electoral commission has announced the first batch of provisional results from Wednesday’s general election showing a strong lead for the governing MPLA.
It said that the MPLA has a 65% share of the vote compared to the main opposition UNITA party’s 24%, Reuters reported. The leader of UNITA has disputed the results from announced by the election commission. Isaias Samakuva told the BBC that the results were controversial adding that it was not clear that the commission had produced the evident of the vote count. UNITA has produced its own set of results showing a different outcome.
As at press time, voting was still going on in three provinces because of problems with the delivery of voting materials. The MPLA’s leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been in power since 1979, but he is stepping down after this election.
Majority of the polls closed on Wednesday evening. Angola’s electoral commission said there were 15 polling stations that did not open.
Spokesperson Julia Ferreira said a plane that was taking election materials to remote areas had crashed in Moxico.
She added that polling stations had also not opened in Benguela province and Lunda Norte.
Long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos will be stepping aside once the result of the election is known.
