From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: ANGOLA: ELECTIONS SEEN AS OVERALL SUCCESS
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 01:40:00 GMT

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ANGOLA: ELECTIONS SEEN AS OVERALL SUCCESS


an inter press service feature

by vicki finkel

luanda, oct 1 (ips) -- as unofficial elections results trickle
in, the two scheduled days of voting have been heralded as an
overall success.

televised early elections figures of selected polling areas
show president jose eduardo dos santos is leading his
battlefield rival jonas savimbi by a large margin of almost
three to one.

of the 236,977 votes counted, 144,413 were for dos santos,
50,015 for savimbi, 11,776 were unmarked and 9,968 were declared
null.

in the parliamentary race, the ruling popular movement for
the liberation of angola (mpla) polled 135,968 while unita (the
national union for the total independence of angola) received
40,750.

these figures, read over the state-run television, cannot be
considered with heavy weight as they mainly represent urban mpla
concentrated areas. official results are expected oct. 9.

''we are very excited by the actual voting'', julio dos
reis, head of the u.n. development programme (umdp) election
assistance team, told ips thursday. ''the angolan people have
demonstrated their strong desire to vote throughout the
country''.

tens of thousands of angolans worked under extremely
difficult conditions in a bid to safeguard the smooth voting of
the southern african country's 4.8 million registered voters.

''the elections teams were true heroes in the process'',
comments one of the 800 international observers in the
war-ravaged country.

the  electoral teams, along with representatives from some of
the 18 parties represented on the ballot, worked tirelessly for
execution of voting.

many brigades received only the food which individual
angolans delivered to them in solidarity, especially following a
televised plea by onofre dos santos, director general of
elections, who urged people to assist with food supplies in
solidarity with the election teams. (more/ips)


angola: elections (2)

people working at the almost 6,000 voting areas in the
country sacrificed their sleep tuesday night to protect the
ballot boxes from potential tampering.

the multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections
were the final phase of a peace process which began 16 months
ago with the signing of a ceasefire agreement by dos santos and
savimbi.

the accord ended a brutal 16-year civil war which claimed
the lives of almost half a million angolans.

many polling stations opened late due to logistical problems
in distributing voting material. in some provinces, to give
every registered voter the opportunity to cast a ballot, voting
polls remained opened thursday.

while observers throughout the country stated their
admiration for the orderly nature of the voting, wednesday unita
armed guards at savimbi's house killed one government guard and
kidnapped two others at the nearby house of the vice-minister of
the interior.

but in a continuation of the mood during the voting days,
the capital lived in tranquility thursday. ''it is amazing it is
like a sunday here'', says one angolan in luanda. ''i am
impressed everyone is very calm and this is important''.

at the closing of polling stations wednesday night, counting
began, but at a pace reflecting the scrutiny of each individual
vote by all present in the voting areas.

''the count is going very slowly but carefully, and this is
better than a rapid count filled with errors'', says dos reis.

helicopters thursday transported the results of the 1,200
difficult access voting places to provinicial capitals where the
figures will be faxed or radioed to luanda.

due to lack of electricity and thus light in many areas,
counters had to remain alert by the ballot boxes wednesday
night until they could begin counting in the morning.

''many people did not know how to vote at all'', says one
observer stationed in viana town, about 30 ks east of the
capital.

''many of the older people trembled in the polling stations
as they were told of the process, and they did not know where to
mark the paper or just folded it without any mark''.

but regardless of the actual casting of ballots, voters
leaving the polls wore faces of great satisfaction after taking
part for the first time in national elections.
(end/ips/vf/apc/92)

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