The head of Angola’s largest opposition party UNITA on Friday rejected preliminary election results that gave the ruling MPLA party victory in this week’s polls.
“UNITA does not recognise the provisional results,” its leader Adalberto Costa Junior said at a press conference.
With 97 percent of ballots tallied, the national electoral commission said the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) reached a majority with 51.07 percent of the vote.
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) was the runner-up with 44.05 percent of votes.
Citing discrepancies between the official count and his own party’s tallies, Costa Junior called for an international commission to review the tally.
“We can affirm with total assurance that the MPLA did not win the elections,” he told a cheering crowd of supporters.
The MPLA has ruled the former Portuguese colony since it gained independence in 1975.
Wednesday’s polls have been widely viewed as the most hotly contested in the country since multiparty elections were introduced in 1992.
