Angola elections: Preliminary results favor ruling party

Provisional results from Angola’s election indicate the ruling party that has been in power for nearly five decades holds a strong lead over the main opposition.

The ruling MPLA, which has been in power for close to 50 years, has a significant lead over the major opposition UNITA, according to preliminary election results released on Thursday. UNITA believes the data are unreliable.

With more 33% of the votes counted by Thursday morning, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) said the first provisional results showed the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), led since 2017 by President Joao Lourenco, garnered 60.65% of the vote.

According to CNE, the opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Adalberto Costa Junior, garnered 33.85% of the vote.

The nation has not witnessed an election as contested as this one. UNITA's share increased from 13% in 2019 to 22% in May, according to an Afrobarometer study.

Since independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has been run by the MPLA. Even if the MPLA is currently ahead by seven points, over half of the electorate was divided. 60% of the population of southern Africa is under the age of 25, and many of them were casting their first votes.

An Afrobarometer survey in May showed UNITA increasing its share to 22 percent, from 13 percent in 2019.