Angola election: Opposition, electoral commission trade words over results

The main opposition party in Angola,National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has urged the constitutional court to hear its appeals and invalidate the declared election results that gave victory to President João Lourenço's MPLA.

Chairman and Presidential candidate of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior on Monday said that discrepancies of over 500,000 votes changed the official results.

 "The data compiled by UNITA's counting and tabulation centre reveal huge and unacceptable differences from those published by the CNE." Adalberto Costa Júnior, UNITA leader told a news conference.

The Angolan National Electoral Commission (CNE) in response to the petition asked the Constitutional Court to reject the appeals lodged by the UNITA, Bloco Democrático and the CASA-CE coalition contesting the official results of the elections. Lucas Quilundo, spokesman for the CNE said his team had done their job correctly.

"The plenary of the National Electoral Commission requests that the Court does not grant them for lack of evidence and therefore legal support, as well as for its material impossibility of carrying out the requests formulated therein." said Lucas Quilundo, spokesman for the CNE.

Out of the 16 electoral commissioners, four did not sign off on the final results,raising questions about the credibility of the polls. 

"We have taken legal action to annul the elections," Costa Junior wrote on Twitter, Friday 2 September.