The Constitutional Court (TC) of Angola accepted UNITA's injunction. The party requested the invalidation of the final results of the elections that gave victory to MPLA.

According to SIC, citing the order issued by the TC, with the injunction accepted in court, the allocation of mandates is suspended until the judges rule on the case, which should happen in the coming weeks. The TC judges may decide to accept or reject the request made by the party led by Adalberto Costa Junior.

UNITA has already been notified of the TC's decision and reacted in a statement: "The request for suspension of the effectiveness of the deliberation meets the requirements to be the object of consideration by the Constitutional Court. This time, we can only wait for the TC's decision."

Angola's National Electoral Commission gave victory to the MPLA, with 51% of the votes. However, UNITA claims there were "several illegalities" and does not accept the official results. The main opposition party filed, last Friday, an injunction with the TC to annul the general elections of August 24.

On Friday, UNITA requested the TC to declare the ineffectiveness of the minutes of the definitive results of the August 24 elections, and that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) be ordered to admit its complaints.

The writ against the CNE says that UNITA's representative, David Horácio Junjuvili, present at the August 28 meeting where the minutes of the final national tabulation of the elections were approved, "dissatisfied with the results", wanted his complaint to be recorded in the minutes, which did not happen.

"Unexpectedly, he was prevented from exercising this right on the grounds that his claim was untimely," says the document, which was filed with the TC on Friday.

In the injunction, UNITA also argues that "the CNE failed" to respect the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms and to comply with constitutional and legal duties, being "illegitimate and criminally punishable the taking and exercising of political power, based on violent means or by other means not foreseen or conforming to the Constitution.

They also stress that "the exercise of political power lacks legitimacy" and that "UNITA's complaint about the electoral results, on which the CNE incorrectly attributed more mandates to MPLA's candidacy, must be rigorously attended to.

"The non-admission of the complaint," says the document consulted by Lusa, "can cause serious damage and difficult to repair in the legal sphere of UNITA's candidacy and also across the state itself, since it is here in question the exercise of political power.

The Angolan TC announced on Friday that UNITA and CASA-CE, both in opposition, have filed appeals regarding the electoral process with that body, but none of them regarding the annulment of the elections.

"The court received late yesterday afternoon [Thursday] two complaints, two requests that begin the electoral litigation, one from UNITA and another from the CASA-CE coalition," said TC spokeswoman Aida Gonçalves.

About a possible request for annulment of the elections, the director of the political parties' office of the court, Mauro Alexandre, indicated that, of the processes that were received, none of them makes reference in terms of requests for annulment of general elections, but did not specify their content.

UNITA demands that the Angolan National Electoral Commission (CNE) compare the minutes of the polling stations in its possession with the minutes held by the parties, contesting the fact that the authorities do not even indicate the data relative to the polling stations, which allowed for the final accounting.