\n<\/p>\n
Angola\u2019s governing MPLA party claims victory in election as opposition rejects the results of the vote.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The governing party in Angola has claimed victory in this week\u2019s election after the electoral commission put its vote at 51 percent, but the leader of the main opposition coalition rejected the results.<\/p>\n Fewer than half of Angola\u2019s registered voters turned out for Wednesday\u2019s election, which appears certain to give President Joao Lourenco a second five-year term and extend the rule of the Marxist People\u2019s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, which has governed the southern African oil producer since independence from Portugal in 1975.<\/p>\n With more than 97 percent of the vote counted, the election commission said on Thursday the MPLA was ahead with a 51 percent majority while its longtime opponent, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, had 44.5 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have reached yet another outright majority. We have a calm majority to govern without any kind of problem and we will do it,\u201d MPLA spokesman Rui Falcao told a news conference in the capital Luanda, a city that overwhelmingly voted for UNITA.<\/p>\n