Vote Counting Begins in Angola
Provisional results on Thursday from ballot counting in Angola's election indicate the ruling party MPLA, in power for nearly five decades, holds a strong lead over the main opposition UNITA, which said the initial outcome was not reliable.
With 33% of the votes counted, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) said the first provisional results showed the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), led since 2017 by President Joao Lourenco, garnered 60.65% of the vote.
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola's (UNITA), the opposition party led by Adalberto Costa Junior, received 33.85%, CNE said.
Since independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has been run by the MPLA. Political analysts believed UNITA had its best-ever chance of victory yet millions of youth left out of its oil-fuelled booms were likely to express frustration with nearly five decades of MPLA rule.
Abel Chivukuvuku, UNITA's vice-presidential candidate, said the provisional results were unreliable and the party would publish its own based on a parallel vote count using the same data as the CNE.
The election was widely seen as the country's most competitive in decades. An Afrobarometer survey in May showed UNITA increasing its share to 22%, from 13% in 2019.
BY REUTERS
Tags: Election 2022 Signstv Angola Election
