Angola's Unita keeps leader

2008-09-20 19:06

Luanda - Angola's main opposition Unita has retained Isaias Samakuva as its leader despite the party's rout in the first peactime elections in the oil-rich southern African nation.

The National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola, a former rebel group and a bitter foe of the ruling MPLA during a 27-year civil war, ended a two-day meeting on Friday aimed at analysing the results and determining whether to keep Samakuva at the helm.

"The Permanent Committee (Unita's politburo) salutes the performance and reaffirms its confidence in president Isaias Samakuva to lead ...our party," a statement said late on Friday.

Unita won 16 seats, while its main rival - the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) - bagged 191 seats in the 220-member parliament in the first election in 16 years held earlier this month.

Samakuva had offered to quit if the party had lost confidence in him.

Unita said the poll rout was more due to external factors, including voter intimidation, the ruling party's misuse of state funds and resources to campaign, the "subversion of state media to condition voters" and corruption.

The Unita said its own weaknesses were only 20% responsible for the disastrous poll showing.

In 1992, Unita's refusal to accept results slid the country back to a civil conflict that only ended in 2002.

- AFP