Over a thousand people in three Angolan provinces to vote on Saturday

Three provinces in Angola were denied the right to vote in Wednesday’s general election due to delay in transporting election materials to the polling stations.

1, 310 voters in the provinces of Moxico, Lunda Norte and Benguela will vote on Saturday at 15 polling centres, the electoral commission said.

The National Electoral Commission (CNE) spokesperson, Julia Ferreira, said on Thursday that the delay was due to bad weather conditions and the recent crash of the helicopter that was transporting electoral materials to the eastern part of the country, the Angolan news agency reports.

She said the electoral officers will be present on Saturday to conduct the elections and the decision is in accordance with the electoral law. The head of the CNE, Andre da Silva Neto, said after Wednesday’s polls that despite the few issues faced, the election process met international standards.

Six parties – represented by six presidential candidates – participated in the elections and the winner will have to obtain majority of seats in parliament after votes are converted into mandates using the proportional representation method.

This is done using the Hare Quota which is calculated by dividing the total number of votes gained by each party by the number of seats.

The electoral commission chairperson is mandated by the constitution to announced the results through the media within 15 days after the close of polls.

The first batch of provisional results are expected to be announced on Thursday.