Chaos as Angola holds poll

2008-09-05 19:05

Charlotte Plantive

Luanda - Angola's first peacetime election on Friday was marred by chaos as the ruling party looked set to extend its three-decade rule in Africa's top oil producer which was ravaged by a 27-year civil war.

Confusion reigned supreme in the seaside capital Luanda where many polling stations opened late and often were without voter lists.

Angola's poll chief admitted that voting had been hampered in the much anticipated ballot, the first since the end of the civil war in 2002.

"Not all polling stations are working fully, in some provinces, particularly in Luanda there are some deficiencies," said Caetano Sousa.

After calling the organisation of the vote "a disaster", the head of the EU observer mission said things appeared to be picking up.

"They are trying to solve the problem (...) there have been some hiccups above all in Luanda, but only in certain places," Luisa Morgantini told an afternoon news conference.

Six years after the end of the war that left at least 500 000 people dead, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is expected to sweep the poll.

Important for the future

The opposition Unita (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), the ruling party's civil war foe, has branded the election as unfair and accused the MPLA of misusing state funds and resources for campaigning.

It also claimed the vote was "stained".

In many areas of Luanda, voting had failed to begin even at midday, some four hours after polling stations were meant to open.

"I arrived at 04:30 (0330 GMT) to be at the head of the line to be able to get back home early," Suzana Idalina, 50, told AFP in the city's poor Samba neighbourhood.

"I will wait until it's possible to vote because for me it is important to choose for the future of my country," she said.

Despite the confusion in Luanda where over 20% of the eight million voters are registered, the event appeared to go more smoothly in the rest of the country.

"In Luanda things are starting slowly and late, but our teams in different regions say things are on time," Mussa Idriss Ndele from a pan-African parliament observer mission said.

While Angola's new wealth stems from its vast oil and diamond riches and has fuelled double-digit growth, most of its 17 million people remain mired in poverty, living on less than $2 a day.

In the low-income Maianga neighbourhood of Luanda, 26-year-old medical student Iracema Antonio impatiently waited in line to vote. "I haven't slept. I'm very excited, this election means a lot in Angola," she said.

Historical moment

President dos Santos on Friday said: "It's a very important and historical moment. The most important thing for us is that Angola emerges the winner in this great attempt to consolidate democracy."

But opposition leader Isaias Samakuva from Unita echoed the concerns of the international observers.

"Some of our delegates have received false credentials, or were given wrong addresses of non-existent polling stations. There is a lot of confusion mainly here in Luanda," Samakuva told journalists.

"The situation is unacceptable (...) If things continue to be like this the whole day, the process will be stained," he said.

Angola held one attempted election in 1992, but Unita claimed it was fixed, withdrew and new hostilities started.

Ahead of Friday's vote, Unita and rights groups complained that MPLA has massive state funding and access to the media.

- AFP