Angola: Ex-president of Mozambique ‘satisfied’ as observer of electoral process

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Angola: Ex-president of Mozambique ‘satisfied’ as observer of electoral process

3:00 CAT | 25 Aug 2022

Image: VOA

A former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, who has been acting as an official observer of Angola’s general elections, which were held on Wednesday, said on Thursday that he was satisfied with the electoral process that he had witnessed.

“I am satisfied with what I saw, and so far I have not heard any noise,” he said. “The opposition has criticised the electoral process. The discussions there are normal, each one defends his or her point of view [but] everyone agreed to participate … and the partial results are coming out now.”

Chissano, who was invited by Angola’s president, João Lourenço, who is running for a second term as top candidate for the governing MPLA party, to observe the elections, said that he had witnessed a “very peaceful process” on Wednesday.

“I was able to watch the counting in an assembly with eight tables and at all the tables the delegates and the CNE [National Electoral Commission] officials were doing their work expertly,” he said. “When there were doubts in marking the ballot papers, sometimes there could be a contrary opinion, but that is normal.”

Chissano earlier this month also acted as an observer in Nairobi, in Kenya’s elections. There, he recalled, the authorities “had abolished the posting of the minutes” with the results from each polling station and “that caused a bit of a fuss” and was criticised by observers.

In Angola, the summary minutes, signed by delegates from all parties at each polling station, have been published and the data is now being counted by the CNE.

“I am satisfied,” Chissano said, while acknowledging that in Kenya biometric registration of voters allowed for better validation of, so minimising the risk of fraud.

In Angola, there is no biometric registration and there were cases of voters voting with expired documents, but Chissano played down this difference.

“Countries cannot be obliged to know all the technologies,” he said. “What is needed is to comply with the method agreed with the opposition and this is being done here.”

The CNE on Thursday announced that the MPLA was in the lead, with 52.08% of the vote, followed by the main opposition party, UNITA, with 42.98%, at a time when 86.41% of the votes had been counted.

In Luanda, with 77.12% of the votes counted, UNITA was leading with 62.93% against the MPLA’s 33.06%, according to the CNE.

Source: Lusa