Africa
Tension As Angolans Waits For Results In Tightest-Ever Election
Angolans who live abroad were eligible to cast their ballots from overseas for the first time.
Vote counting is under way after Angolans went to the polls on Wednesday August 25, 2022 in a tight race in which the main opposition coalition has its best chance of winning in history.
Deutsche Welle reports that the National Electoral Commission (NEC) registered about 14.3 million voters to participate in the election. Angolans who live abroad were eligible to cast their ballots from overseas for the first time.
The governing People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a formerly Marxist party that has dominated the oil-rich country since its independence from Portugal in 1975, is facing its most formidable challenge since the first multiparty election in 1992.
“I hope that every vote will be properly counted, and that it will remain peaceful and fair,” UNITA leader Adalberto Costa Junior, the party”s presidential candidate, told reporters after casting his vote.
Meanwhile, the party that wins a simple majority of the 220 seats in Angola’s parliament will determine the head of state.