Issued on: 29/08/2022 – 19:42
Angola’s MPLA party was declared the winner of a hard-fought election on Monday, extending its decades-long rule in the oil-rich country and handing President Joao Lourenco a second term.
Angola’s MPLA party was declared the winner of a hard-fought election on Monday, extending its decades-long rule in the oil-rich country and handing President Joao Lourenco a second term.
He pledged to be the “president of all Angolans” and to open the dialogue after the Election Commission announced the results, bringing huge gains to the opposition.
“This is a victory for Angola and the Angolans in general,” Lourenco, 68, said in his inaugural address shortly after the August 24 vote was revealed.
“This vote was a vote of confidence, which gives us an enormous responsibility to promote dialogue and social dialogue”.
The National Electoral Commission (CNE) reported that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola won 51.17 percent of the vote, against 43.95 percent for the main challenger, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Despite the win, the result – the tightest in Angola’s history – was a low for the MPLA and could still face court after UNITA previously rejected preliminary results.
Several members of the electoral commission have not signed the final count, polls said Monday.
The MPLA has historically controlled the electoral process and state media, and opposition and citizen groups had sparked fears of voter manipulation.
UNITA leader Adalberto Costa Junior, 60, last week called for an international panel to review the count.
International observers have expressed some concerns, including voter roll questions and biased coverage by state television, but most said the vote was peaceful and well-organized.
Reduced Majority
The MPLA, a former Marxist liberation movement, has ruled for nearly half a century since Portugal’s independence in 1975.
But support has steadily declined during the recent elections.
While it went to victory with 71.84 percent of the vote in 2012, it only gained 61 percent five years later.
UNITA scored 26.67 percent in the 2017 elections and contested the official count.
Alex Vines, of the UK-based Chatham House think tank, said that while UNITA was likely to challenge the count this time too, the former rebel movement had reasons to be happy.
“It’s a great result for UNITA when you consider that they were defeated on the battlefield 20 years ago,” he said.
“Politics will have to change in Angola now. There will have to be a policy of compromise,” he said.
The results gave the MPLA 124 of the 220 parliamentary seats up for grabs, while UNITA won 90.
Turnout was low, with only about 45 percent of registrants casting their vote, indicating a growing disillusionment with politics, Vines said.
The United States on Monday called on all parties to “express themselves peacefully and resolve any grievances in accordance with applicable legal process.”
“We will continue to closely monitor the election process,” the State Department said in a statement before the final results were announced.
Second semester
The last election was overshadowed by a struggling economy, inflation, poverty, drought and the death of Lourenco’s predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Dos Santos was buried in Luanda on Sunday during a solemn funeral.
The opposition has proved popular in urban areas, winning in the capital Luanda and among young people dissatisfied with the ruling party.
Angola is Africa’s second largest crude oil producer, but the oil bonanza has been fraught with corruption and nepotism.
Lourenco, a former general trained in the Soviet Union, was first elected in 2017.
He is credited with far-reaching reforms since he came to power, including increasing financial transparency, tackling bribery and promoting business-friendly policies to lure foreign investors.
But critics say his anti-graft crusade was one-sided and aimed at settling political scores, targeting children and cronies of dos Santos.
His economic reforms have so far failed to improve living conditions for most Angolans, critics say.
“With this vote of confidence, it is time to continue the reforms needed to make Angola a more prosperous and developed country,” Lourenco said, pledging to pay special attention “to the expectations of young people”.
(AFP)