Premier's Aide Receives Positive Evaluation of Polls
Luanda 9/12/08 – The assistant minister of the prime minister, Aguinaldo Jaime, this Friday granted an audience to members of the Observation Mission of the African Civil Society to the legislative elections of Angola, from whom he received a positive assessment of the polls, whose provisional results show more than 80 percent of the votes in favour of MPLA party.
Aguinaldo Jaime confirmed that the preliminary report of the African Civil Society Mission, comprising various NGOs, mentions that the Angolan elections, held on September 05-06, as “free, transparent and an example for Africa and the World”.
The premier’s aide justifies the evaluation of African observes due to the fact that, apart from the difficulties, Angolan authorities were capable of organising a positive electoral process.
“There was fear that the trauma of war had not been overcome and this could have been reflected in the electoral process. The population showed an example of citizenship and the government is pleased with the way the process happened”, he stated.
Aguinaldo Jaime also said that the fact that Angolans gave more than 80 percent of their votes to MPLA shows a “message of trust to the government” regarding the national reconstruction and reconciliation results obtained during the six years of peace.
The head of the African Civil Society Observation Mission, the Ivorian Toure Dgabara Inocent, told the press that the legislative elections were held in a transparent manner and that the population voted freely.
The tenth and last provisional results of the legislative polls confirm MPLA’s advantage over the other parties, with 4.52 million votes (81,76 percent), followed by UNITA, with 572,573 votes, (10,33 percent), and PRS, with 173,546 votes (3,14 percent).