Angola vote marks end of an era
• Unexpected retirement of President Dos Santos triggers biggest political transition in country since its independence from Portugal
Angolans voted on Wednesday in an election marking the end of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos’s 38-year reign, with his MPLA party set to retain power.
Angolans voted on Wednesday in an election marking the end of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos’s 38-year reign, with his MPLA party set to retain power despite an economic crisis.
The MPLA (People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola) has been in power since Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975, and is expected to defeat opposition parties stifled by Dos Santos’s authoritarian regime.
Dos Santos’s unexpected retirement, reportedly prompted by poor health, has triggered the biggest political transition in decades for Angola, a leading African oil exporter.
His chosen successor, however, is Defence Minister Joao Lourenco, a loyalist expected to avoid immediate change in a government often criticised for corruption and its failure to tackle dire poverty.
Lourenco, 63, has proved a dour presence during the campaign. He has focused in his speeches on vowing to fight against corruption, create jobs and “make Angola better”.
“I am calm, I am going to stay calmly at home while waiting for my party colleagues to inform me of the results,” Lourenco said after voting in Luanda, adding the election was “going smoothly”.
Dos Santos’s long reign has seen the end of Angola’s bloody civil war that lasted from 1975 to 2002, and a post-conflict investment boom as the country exploited its oil reserves.
But the flood of money brought little benefit to Angola’s poor and government spending collapsed when oil prices fell in 2014. Inflation hit 40% at the end of 2016, when annual growth was less than 1%.
Lourenco has vowed to boost foreign investment and said he wanted to be recognised as the man who brought an “economic miracle” to Angola.
At a weekend rally in front of thousands of MPLA supporters, Dos Santos, a frail-looking 74, made a brief appearance to endorse Lourenco.
“Dos Santos brought forward his departure to after these elections due to his deteriorating health,” Alex Vines of the Chatham House think-tank, said. “Lourenco is an ideal transitional successor to Dos Santos. He is respected by the military and has not lived a flamboyant lifestyle [like] many others.”
Dos Santos has been dogged by reports of illness. His regular visits to Spain for “private” reasons fuelled criticism that the state of his health was being hidden from Angolans.
Earlier in 2017, his daughter Isabel — who has become a billionaire and Africa’s richest businesswoman under his rule — was forced to deny rumours he had died in Spain.
In the face of ruthless security force crackdowns and a state-run media, the opposition parties — led by Unita and CasaCE — have sought to tap into public anger at the government.
“You who are suffering, you who are in poverty, without electricity, jobs and food to eat — change is now,” Unita leader Isaias Samakuva told Angolans on the campaign trail.
Samakuva took over Unita after longtime rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed in 2002, a death that marked the beginning of the end of the civil war.
Dissent has often been dangerous under Dos Santos, who has been a secretive but inescapable presence in Angolan life for decades.
Angola’s next leader “must guide the country out of the spiral of oppression”, rights group Amnesty said in a statement.
“Dos Santos’ presidency is marked by his appalling human rights record. For decades, Angolans have lived in a climate of fear in which speaking out was met with intimidation and imprisonment,” it said.
“I came to vote for... change,” Jose Manuel, 23, said at a polling station in the Talatona neighbourhood of Luanda.
“I do not have any work, we have a lot of things that we need here,” he said.
The MPLA, which won 72% in the 2012 election, has funded a rush of infrastructure projects including bridges and dams, apparently to shore up support levels among the 9.3-million registered voters. Results are expected by Friday.