Luanda - The leader of Angola's main opposition party UNITA on Tuesday held up Senegal's recent successful election as a model for his country's own vote later this year, saying it too should decentralise vote counting.
Outgoing Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had been criticised for seeking a third term in office but his decision to concede defeat to Macky Sall in Sunday's run-off vote was viewed as boosting the West African country's democratic credentials.
"The lesson we would like to take from Senegal's election is of a transparent process that follows democratic rules, and it would be good if that could be pursued here in Angola," UNITA leader Isaias Samakuva told Reuters in an interview.
Angola, Africa's No. 2 oil producer after Nigeria, is set to go to the polls in the third quarter of this year, for only the second time since the end of a 27-year civil war in 2002. The election will decide the makeup of the parliament with the leader of the winning party becoming president. Jose Eduardo dos Santos, one of Africa's longest serving leaders, is currently in power and his MPLA party is tipped to win again.
"One thing I would like to see here in Angola is for the results to come from the polling stations, like in Senegal and not from a central counting unit days later," Samakuva said.
In the Senegal election, results from each polling station were posted outside within hours of the vote closing in a move that experts said helped guard against fraud.
"How the votes are counted is important. In Senegal, despite the incumbent president having organised things to aid his bid, it wasn't possible to subvert the will of the people," Samakuva said.
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' MPLA party won the civil war against UNITA and then crushed its political rivals in a 2008 election, obtaining 82 percent of the vote.
UNITA won just 10 percent and has since alleged that the counting was rigged, an allegation that the MPLA has strongly denied.
The MPLA is widely expected to retain its majority, but Samakuva said he was convinced Angolans wanted a change.
"Here the will of the people has been subverted. If the will of the people is respected, if results reflect the truth, then we could be have a surprise," he said.
Dos Santos - whose 32 years in power make him Africa's second-longest serving ruler after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo - has yet to announce he is running in the election, but is expected to do so in the next few weeks.
He has promised the vote will be free and transparent.
Two years ago, Dos Santos presided over the passing of a new constitution that says the leader of the winning party in a general election becomes president, which means he could, if he stands in the vote and the MPLA wins, remain in office until 2022.
UNITA has long echoed accusations by global human rights groups that Dos Santos' regime has repeatedly avoided scrutiny, suppressed freedoms and done too little to fight widespread corruption and poverty in the resource-rich country.
Analysts say UNITA itself has been in decline and divided since the killing of its founding leader Jonas Savimbi led to the end of the civil war.
Earlier this month, Abel Chivukuvuku - a charismatic senior UNITA member who was close to Savimbi - broke away to form his own party, CASA, with several UNITA delegates.
Samakuva said UNITA was not concerned about the departure, as "it is normal in democracy for some to go, others to arrive."
Preparations for the election have already been clouded by a dispute over the re-appointment of Susana Ingles to head the national elections committee. UNITA says she is too close to the MPLA and not a judge and so does not qualify.
The MPLA has said the appointment was impartial and accused opposition parties of creating unnecessary tension. - Reuters
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