Observers differ on Angola vote

2008-09-09 08:09

Luanda - A European observer of Angola's elections said on Monday that he had personally witnessed intimidation and misuse of government resources in Angola's first peacetime poll.

But African observers said the elections which handed victory to the ruling MPLA party of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos were free and fair.

Speaking to AFP on the phone from Brussels Richard Howitt, Labour's foreign affairs spokesperson in the European Parliament, said he witnessed "pressure on voters" and "huge and serious misuse of government resources".

"I was in Cabinda on election day observing the opening of polling stations, there were three ranks of soldiers lined up inside the school playground and voters had to pass through them to get to the voting station," said Howitt.

"To me that was a very blatant example of pressure put on voters."

Howitt said he also observed the bussing of foreign voters across the border from the neighbouring Congo republic into the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda. He said he had found a camp with some 700 such people.

"We interviewed five of them who said to us that they had been organised and paid for by the governing party, the only party symbols that were there were people wearing MPLA T-shirts and badges," he added.

Howitt warned that "multi-party democracy is at stake" in Angola.

The official report from the EU observer mission is expected later on Monday.

Logistic glitches

Monitors from the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) group said the vote was "peaceful, free, transparent and credible" and reflected "the will of the people".

The head of the AU observer team, Benjamin Bounkoulou, also said the poll was "free, democratic and transparent," and logistic glitches in Luanda "cannot compromise the election".

"Generally, the election went well," the Congolese Senate deputy president told AFP, while commending the large turn-out.

"I was impressed by the determination and enthusiasm of the Angolan people to exercise their voting right," he said before presenting his mission report.

The head of the 25-member AU mission, however, "condemned the delays recorded in Luanda" where polling stations failed to open on time because they had not received ballot papers and a voters' register.

"But these shortcomings were not deliberate and we think that these problems would be corrected in future elections", he said in reference to next year's presidential poll.

The AU also expressed the hope that Luanda authorities remove the "ambiguity linked to the president of the republic also being the chairperson of his party". "We have advised the Constitutional Court to clarify this situation," Bounkoulou said.

Initial partial results show a sweeping victory for the leftwing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) with some 80% of the vote, while main rival Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) has around 10% of the vote.

- AFP