The CNE refuses to block voter lists. UNITA fears fraud and ballot stuffing

Angola’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) refused this Saturday to allow delegates to block voting lists after the polls close, and the opposition fears that the ballots of those who did not vote will be included and counted.

“Ballot stuffing is not an Angolan creation, it happens all over the world where there is such an opportunity, where there is an excess of ballots on the tables” and “lists are not blocked”, with the signature and blocking all the names that were not present during the elections, said David Horacio Junjuvili, representative of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in the CNE.

Analysts and the authorities themselves have already admitted that of the 14 million voters on the voter lists, there are at least two million phantom voters among the dead and emigrants.

UNITA also complains that it has not yet had access to the results of the verification of the dossier that served as the basis for compiling the voter lists or approved lists.

“We go to the polls and we don’t know anything. We have not seen the lists of voters, we could not have lists, and, as you can see, it will be difficult for us to see who is on the lists, who are dead, who are absent, who are displaced persons,” explained David Horacio Junjuvili.

“Transparency [é] absolutely none,” commented a UNITA spokesman four days before the Angolan general election.

“There are many people on these lists who will not be at their meetings on Election Day, which requires that at the end of the vote, list delegates lock the list so that others cannot use the names of those absent from the voting list.” Junjuvili explained, admitting “disappointment” in the face of the request, arguing that the voter list is not a voter list.

The list includes the annotated names of those who actually voted, and the plenary emphasized that delegates should only sign the voter list, which does not include this indication.

“Voter lists all over the world are voter lists and we’re leaving here with the CNE who doesn’t want the voter lists to be blocked,” he explained.

Speaking to reporters, CNE spokesman Lucas Quilundo acknowledged that an interpretation was given at the plenary session to clarify the organic law separating “election protocols” from “voter lists”.

The “vote book” refers to the cupola, hence the sheets with numbered pages, with no “possibility to extract or add additional sheets” and at each polling station, delegates use a “name list on separate sheets” to indicate who voted or not, Lukas explained. Kilundo, justifying the CNE plenum’s rejection of UNITA’s demands.

The largest opposition party accused the CNE of being in the employ of the government party, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), complaining that most of its requests were denied.

Angola will vote on August 24 to choose a new President of the Republic and new representatives in the National Assembly.