In Angola, the outgoing president, Joao Lourenço, was approaching victory against his charismatic opposition rival on Thursday, August 25, according to official results counting almost all the votes cast in the disputed legislative elections.

With more than 97% of the ballots counted, the MPLA, the former all-powerful single party ruling Angola since 1975, remains in the lead with 51.07% of the votes, according to the electoral commission.

In the 2017 elections, he won hands down with 61% of the vote.

In 2012, he collected 71.84% of the votes.

There is no presidential election in Angola.

According to the Constitution, the head of the list of the party which wins the legislative elections is invested as Head of State.

In this election, the tightest ever in the country, the opposition, embodied by Adalberto Costa Junior, is on the way to achieving a historic score.

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, Unita, has so far won 44.05% of the vote.

A jump from 26.67% in 2017.  

Strong Opposition

If these results are confirmed, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) retains its majority in Parliament with 124 seats out of 220. But it loses the two-thirds majority which until now allowed it to pass its law without the support of another party.

Unita has won 90 seats so far.

The opposition has grown stronger since the arrival of a leader, Adalberto Costa Junior, 60, while the historic party is losing momentum in a country rich in natural resources but plunged into serious economic difficulties.

Just before the announcement of the latest partial results, Unita declared at a press conference that it was not obtaining the same results as the commission.

But "we do not encourage rebellion, the process is not over, we must remain calm", underlined Anastacio Ruben Sicato, a member of the party.

The results had been disputed in previous elections.

The opposition and part of public opinion feared possible fraud.

But the ballot took place "in compliance with international requirements", according to independent observers from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).

Reform promises

On promises of reform, the opponent reputed to be a good orator seduces an urban youth less attached to the MPLA than his elders and who inherited a country undermined by decades of corruption under the presidency of José Eduardo dos Santos (1979-2017).

In the street, galloping inflation, severe drought, unemployment and high prices are fueling growing frustration.

Pure product of the party nourished with Marxism-Leninism, Joao Lourenço, 68, surprised by freeing himself from the system once elected.

He launched a vast anti-corruption campaign and carried out reforms, hailed abroad, to get the economy out of its dependence on oil.

But for many of the 33 million Angolans, not all promises have been kept.

Many believe that the anti-corruption campaign, which has fueled divisions within the party, has amounted to a witch hunt against the dos Santos clan.

And in the 2nd largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the world's leading producers of diamonds, poverty remains glaring.

Almost half of Angolans lived on less than $1.9 a day in 2020.  

With AFP

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