Angola’s main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA, has filed a legal petition challenging the electoral victory of the ruling Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA.
It would be recalled that incumbent President Joao Lourenco who ran for re-election was declared the winner of the presidential election under the platform of MPLA while Adalberto Costa Junior, his main challenger ran under the opposition UNITA.
MPLA, however, got a reduced majority in the legislature but UNITA has rejected the results.
While filing the legal petition on Tuesday, UNITA said the complaints would have the effect of stalling the declaration of the election’s results.
But the electoral body’s spokesperson, Lucas Quilundo, initially told reporters that none of the complaints the organization had received so far had anything to do with the results of the election, but he later clarified that he had dismissed two UNITA complaints that had to do with the election’s conduct and outcome.
The electoral body declared the ruling (MPLA) the winner after the most closely contested election since the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975, extending the party’s nearly five decades of uninterrupted rule and giving President Joao Lourenco a second term.
Specifically, MPLA polled 51% of the total votes cast as UNITA, its longtime opponent and former civil war enemy, garnered about 44%, which counted as its best result ever.