ANGOLA:Angola's ruling MPLA party won a landslide parliamentary election victory yesterday.
The win set the stage for changes which critics fear could make the presidency even more powerful, and weaken other institutions. The MPLA, which has ruled the oil-rich country since independence from Portugal in 1975 and has embraced pro-business policies after abandoning Marxism in the early 1990s, saw off a divided and underfunded opposition in the two-day general election.
It took nearly 82 per cent of the vote based on provisional final results released on Wednesday, and beat the opposition in all 18 provinces. It puts the MPLA on track to win at least 170 of 220 seats in parliament - nearly 80 per cent of seats.
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and other senior MPLA officials had campaigned hard to win the two-thirds majority needed to alter the country's constitution. However, they have not specified what changes are in the works.
"The opposition fears that an authoritarian presidency could be created and that the rule of law will not be respected," said Fernando Macedo, a law professor and political analyst at Luanda's Lusiada University.
Prof Macedo said that an MPLA-dominated parliament would not be able to tamper easily with certain rights enshrined in the constitution, including a guarantee that Angola would have a multi-party democracy and independent judiciary.
But the ruling party could be emboldened by the virtual collapse of the largest opposition group, Unita, which won slightly more than 10 per cent of the vote. The former rebel group took 34 per cent in the last elections in 1992.
Investors, especially oil firms, are generally comfortable with the current MPLA government, which is keen to lure more foreign investment into its booming oil and diamond sectors as well as other neglected areas, including agriculture. Unita complained that it faced a serious disadvantage in the election because of the MPLA's access to financial resources and its control of important television channels, radio and other media.
US and European election observers agreed there was hardly a level playing field and that the poll was marked by irregularities, but also said it represented a step in the right direction for a country whose 27-year civil war ended only in 2002. Others in the international community, including former colonial ruler Portugal, breathed a sigh of relief that Angola was set to emerge from the ordeal without the turmoil which marred other polls in Africa in the past year. - (Reuters)