Angola’s Electoral Commission declared Monday, August 29 the candidate of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), João Lourenço, re-elected as President of the Republic, for a second term of five years, reports the ‘Press Agency Angop.
According to the final results, the MPLA, in power for forty-seven years, obtained 51.17% of the votes at the end of the general elections of August 24, which corresponds to 124 seats, details the Angolan news site. Club-K. The main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), won 43.95% of the vote, or 90 deputies.
Welcoming a “vote of confidence”João Lourenço, 68 years old, the promise “dialogue and consultation”.
close victory
The official results, continues Club-Kshow that, compared to the last mandate (2017-2022), the MPLA lost 26 seats, dropping from 150 to 124. Unita fell from 51 to 90 deputies, almost double the number obtained in the last legislature.
This election is the tightest in the country’s democratic history and “has been described by analysts as an ‘existential moment’”highlighted The Guardian. It’s about “of the worst historical result” of the MPLA, and “high score” of Unita, notes the newspaper.
72 hours for any appeal
Unita leader Adalberto Costa Júnior, who rejected provisional results last week, “will probably not accept the results of the electoral commission without verification and without the ‘last word’ of the Constitutional Court”in advance Club-K. In accordance with article 157 of the electoral law, explains the site, the candidates or their representatives will have seventy-two hours, from the publication of the final results, to lodge an appeal with the Constitutional Court, which will render a final decision. within seventy-two hours.
The Guardian is not of the same opinion. “According to analysts”writes the daily, “the opposition will face a dilemma if they reject the official results”. If it launches a protest campaign in the streets, Unita could be accused of having deliberately fomented unrest, but if it seeks redress through legal or constitutional means, it is unlikely to succeed.