Angola’s main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), on Tuesday said it would contest the election results and lodge a complaint that seeks to suspend the announcement of the Aug. 24 general election final results.
This came after the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced Monday that the ruling party, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), won the 2022 general elections by gaining 51.17 percent of the votes cast.
UNITA in a statement said that it had not been directly notified of the final decision on the results of the elections, adding that it had learned through public media outlets of the results announced by the CNE.
The party said it does not recognize the results until the complaints it has submitted have been decided, underlining that they were also not notified of the decision of the plenary that endorsed the results and did not receive a copy of the minutes of the tabulation of the definitive results as stipulated by the law.
“In this context, UNITA would like to inform national and international opinion that within the legal time limits, it will file a complaint that will have the effect of suspending the declaration of the definitive results presented by the CNE,” the statement said.
The CNE announced Monday that the ruling MPLA won the elections with 51.17 percent of the votes and 124 parliament seats, while UNITA came second with 43.95 percent of the votes and 90 seats at the National Assembly.
Manuel Pereira da Silva, president of the CNE, said that from the total of 14.3 million registered voters, only 6.4 million citizens voted, equivalent to 44.82 percent, while the remaining 7.9 million voters abstained, equivalent to a 55.18 percent abstention rate.
