THE head of Angola’s largest opposition party National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) yesterday rejected preliminary election results that gave the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party victory in this week’s polls. 

“Unita does not recognise the provisional results,” its leader Adalberto Costa Junior said at a press conference.

With 97% of ballots tallied, the national electoral commission said the MPLA reached a majority with 51.07% of the vote.

Unita was runner-up with 44.05% of votes. 

Citing discrepancies between the official count and his own party’s tallies, Costa Junior called for an international commission to review the tally. 

“We can affirm with total assurance that the MPLA did not win the elections,” he told a cheering crowd of supporters.

The MPLA has ruled the former Portuguese colony since it gained independence in 1975.

Wednesday’s polls have been widely viewed as the most hotly contested in the country since multiparty elections were introduced in 1992. – AFP, August 27, 2022.