Official Angolan result gives ruling MPLA wafer thin win. On the streets the outcome isn't believed

Adalberto Costa Junior, leader of Angola’s opposition party, The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) arrives to cast his vote. John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images

Angola’s elections were, for the first time, a tight race between the governing People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and a coalition led by its historic rival, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The coalition, UNITA-FPU (United Patriotic Front) included independent candidates from other opposition parties and formations.

Preliminary results from civil society parallel counting, led by the Civic Movement Mudei, have given a landslide victory to the UNITA coalition, at least in urban centres. For its part, the government-controlled National Electoral Commission announced provisional results that gave a thin majority (51%) to the ruling party.