Angola’s MPLA party has been declared winner of the keenly contested presidential election.
This win has extended the ruling party’s decades-long rule and giving President Joao Lourenco a second term.
According to official results announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) on Monday, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) won 51.17 percent of the ballots against 43.95 percent for the main opposition, The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Manuel Pereira da Silva the country’s election commission head said in a news conference.
“The CNE proclaims Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco president of the republic,” commission head
The vote was the tightest in Angola’s history. Results – the smallest margin of victory the party has ever had – in past elections have been contested, a process that can take several weeks.”
Clariform recalls that UNITA, a former rebel movement that fought a 27-year civil war against the MPLA government which ended in 2002, earlier rejected provisional results.
Leader of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Junior, last week made a call for an international panel to review the election result.
The opposition leader pointed out discrepancies between the commission’s result and that of his camp’s coalition as it did not tally.
According to political analysts, further dispute could lead to mass street protests and possible violence among poor and frustrated youth who voted for Costa Junior.
The former liberation movement MPLA has ruled Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975 but support have massively declined in recent elections.
The announcement of the incumbent’s victory and return to office is coming barely a day after the funeral of Angola’s long-serving ex-ruler and MPLA legend, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
In an acceptance speech, President Lourenco promised to reform Angola’s economy in his new term in office.
