Angola: MPLA wins over 80% of votes and secures 191 seats · Global Voices
Paula Góes

The final results of the Parliamentary Elections disclosed late last night by Angola's National Electoral Commission [pt] confirmed the ruling party the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola‘s victory with 81,64% (5,266,216 votes). The runner up, the main opposition party National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, had 10.39% (670,363 votes). A total of 7,213,246 Angolans went to the polls, out of 8,256,584 people who had registered to vote – an 87% turnout.
This means that the MPLA makes 191 of the 220 elected Members of Parliament, while UNITA will have 16, PRS 8 and the ND and FNLA both will have 2 seats (click here for a full list of those elected, by region). Jorge Santos from Leste de Angola [pt] was among the first bloggers announcing the following results:
MPLA – 5.266.216 ( 81,64%)
UNITA – 670.363 (10,39%)
PRS – 204.746 (3,17%)
ND – 77.141 (1,20%)
FNLA – 71.416 (1,11%)
PDP-ANA – 32.952 (0,51%)
PLD – 21.341 (0,33 porcento)
AD Coligação – 18.977 (0,29%)
PADEPA – 17.509 (0,27%)
FPD – 17.073 (0,26%)
PAJOCA – 15.535 (0,24%)
PRD – 14.238 (0,22%)
PPE – 12.052 (0,19%)
FOFAC – 10.858 (0,19%)
Camara de Comuns [pt] publishes an analysis from reader Rui Miguel Menezes Vaz, who lives in Bié, one of the most battered provinces during the war. He explains why he believes the results were for the better:
Não é preciso ir muito longe e perceber que o MPLA, mesmo sendo um partido manipulador e dominador, era a única saída para a estabilidade. A UNITA não apresentou uma única vez um quadro, ao nível de governação, capaz de mover forças. Alias, os únicos que teriam capacidade de liderar excluíram-se destas eleições e o povo não esquece o passado. Durante o período eleitoral é facilmente constatável que o MPLA tinha muito mais direito de antena e muito mais protagonismo. Mas não foi esse o partido que levou este pais a evoluir e atrair o investimento todo em Angola?
There is no need to go very far to realize that the MPLA, even if a manipulative and dominating party, was the only way to stability. UNITA had not once presented a framework at the level of government, capable of moving forces. Moreover, the only ones able to lead were excluded from these elections and people did not forget the past. During the election period it was easily observed that the MPLA had more rights to air time and more prominence. But wasn't it this party that led the country to evolve and Angola to attract all this investment?
Carlos Lopes [pt] commented on what this result means to the opposing party UNITA, which lost more than 50 of its seats, saying that “worse than losing the war was losing the elections”. He said the results in Luanda at least were surprising:
Não foi se quer, o problema da mensagem da «mudança», que era bem aceite e «colava» nos ouvidos do eleitor, mas antes, um sério problema de avaliação do potencial do eleitorado em termos de resultado, ou seja, a quantidade de votos que o partido iria recolher nessa Província, Município e Comuna. Os dirigentes fizeram-se a estrada e apostaram em locais, cujos eleitores não corresponderam a expectativa criada, porque aqueles que dirigiram a campanha da UNITA, com base em dados pouco fiáveis e alguns inexistentes, não conseguiram colmatar as falhas que apareciam, muitas vezes por desconhecimento
The problem was not even the message of ‘change’, which was well accepted and ‘stuck’ in the voters’ ears, but rather a serious problem of assessing the potential of the electorate in terms of outcome, that's to say the amount of votes that the party would gather in that province, municipality and commune. The leaders have invested and bet in places where voters did not match the expectations created, because those who directed the UNITA campaign, based on unreliable and some non-existent data, failed to bridge the gaps that appeared, often out of ignorance
Luciano Canhanga [pt] analyses the situation for smaller parties which didn't get much confidence from the polls and now are at risk:
Dos partidos concorrentes às eleições e que não conseguiram acentos, apenas o PDP_ANA se livra da extinção compulsiva, já que conseguiu tangencialmente transpor os 0,5% da votação geral exigida por lei. Os que não concorreram ficam obrigados a concorrer em 2012, sob pena de extinção. (…) E que dizer de formações como o PRD, PPE e FOCAC que dizem ter conseguido as 15 mil assinaturas com que se habilitaram à corrida, mas que findo o escrutínio acabaram com menos de 15 mil votos?
Out of the competing parties that failed to get seats, only the PDP_ANA is free of compulsory extinction, as it tangentially managed to get the 0.5% of the general votes required by law. Those who did not run this time must compete in 2012, under threat of extinction. (…) And what about parties such as the PRD, PPE and FOCAC which claim to have achieved the 15 thousand signatures that enabled them to compete in the race, but that after the ballot ended with less than 15 thousand votes?
Koluki [pt] publishes a link to the Human Rights Watch report ‘Angola: Irregularities Marred Historic Elections’, published last September 15 highlighting that there was ‘no independent oversight, media bias’. She provides her own observations on the document, and concludes:
Em suma, e’ minha conviccao que os resultados eleitorais nao sao determinados apenas durante a campanha eleitoral ou no dia das eleicoes, elas sao determinadas ao longo de anos pelos eleitores que acumulam as experiencias de vida que acabam por ditar as suas decisoes de voto, por muito que, infelizmente, o processo eleitoral nao decorra de forma tao transparente quanto todos desejariamos, a bem dos proprios eleitores, ou seja, do povo e da nacao.
In short, I believe that the election results are not determined only during the election campaigning or on the election day, they are determined over years by voters who gather life experience that ultimately dictate their voting decisions, although, unfortunately, the electoral process does not happen in so transparent a way as we wished, for the sake of the voters themselves, who is to say the people and nation.
The September 5 election was the first since 2002, when the 27-year civil war fought between then rival factions MPLA and UNITA came to an end. Angolans will choose a president next year.
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