"For this reason, UNITA will keep the speech, we will continue to appeal to the citizens to stay in the assembly and wait for the result, that is, stay close to the assembly at the distance that the law allows, so that in the end, before go home, find out the result in your assembly through the minutes that will be fixed", said the national secretary for Electoral Affairs at UNITA, Faustino Mumbika.
The head of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) denies that the presence of voters in the vicinity of a polling station is illegal, "as the National Electoral Commission [CNE] has been announcing".
"When it is said that it is illegal only if it is considered that the individual votes and stays inside the assembly, otherwise the law allows citizens after exercising their right to vote they can remain in the areas close to the assembly at a distance", he replied to Lusa, during a press conference in Luanda.
The general elections, the fifth ballot in the country's political history, are scheduled for August 24, and eight political forces are participating in the electoral campaign.
The president of the CNE, Manuel Pereira da Silva, appealed on Tuesday to the Public Prosecutor's Office to prevent the possible concentration of citizens at polling stations after they had voted, making "comply with the law", within the scope of the vaunted movement "Voted, Sent", promoted by the opposition and Angolan civil society.
Faustino Mumbika, also responsible for the defense and control of the vote in UNITA's electoral campaign structure, recalled this Thursday that at the end of the tabulation in the assembly, a copy of the summary is fixed "so that voters actually know the result in their assembly".
"That is why we are appealing to citizens who, after exercising their right to vote, in an orderly manner and at a distance that does not disturb the internal work of the assembly, wait for its result, simply that", he insisted.
"Now what is very strange is why the CNE is so scandalized by the peaceful presence of voting citizens at a distance from the assembly that the law even allows, that is, it becomes very strange in fact", shot the politician from the "maninhos".
Faustino Mumbika also considered the CNE's criticisms as "shouting" which, in his view, translates into the electoral body's pretension of wanting to "repeat the usual violations of not posting the minutes at polling stations".
"This can only be what can justify this hysteria that we are witnessing and, unfortunately, while there is hysteria against an act that even the law allows, the CNE is silent against violations of the law and even practices violations of the law, here perhaps we also appeal to the PGR (Attorney General's Office)", he concluded.
