election

Angolan Opposition Says Four Members Killed Ahead of Election

By Candido Mendes

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Angola's main opposition said four of its members were killed and 19 injured in attacks by supporters of the ruling party ahead of the country's first elections in 16 years next month.

The incidents, which occurred over the last week, included an ambush on a convoy transporting opposition supporters in the central Benguela province, Adalberto Costa Junior, a spokesman for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or Unita, said in a telephone interview in Luanda, the capital. The victims were attacked by people wearing T-shirts of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, he said.

``Unita has been working hard to remove violence from the political process,'' Costa Junior said. ``It hasn't been always possible since we are counting now four innocent people dead who only wanted to celebrate taking part in the electoral process.''

Angola, Africa's biggest oil producer, won independence from Portugal in 1975. The country was then embroiled in a civil war between President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos's MPLA and Unita. Parliamentary elections will be held on Sept. 5, with 10 parties and more than 5,000 candidates competing for 220 seats.

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based civil rights group, said Aug. 13 the credibility of the vote is under threat because the opposition and the media are being subjected to intimidation and the commission organizing the ballot isn't independent.

A spokesman for the MPLA denied the ruling party was responsible for the violence, blaming ``rogue drunkards.''

``You can't say that if a drunk man gets excited and slaps a member of another party, that it's mandated by our party,'' Rui Pinto de Andrade, the MPLA's director of information, said in an interview yesterday in Luanda.

To contact the reporter on this story: Candido Mendes in Luanda via Johannesburg at [email protected].
Last Updated: August 29, 2008 04:56 ED