President João Lourenço of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party is hoping for a second term in office. He has run Angola since 2017.
Lourenço ended his campaign on Monday, claiming to have built “a new Angola.”
“It’s been exactly five years since the moment we started this mission is ending,” he said at an advocacy ceremony over the weekend. “We have worked on this mission to make Angola the new Angola, an Angola that is better accepted by the Angolan people as well as by the international community.”
Angola is the second largest oil producer in Africa but the country’s huge oil wealth does not flow down to many poor people.
Once a Portuguese colony, Angola emerged from the ruins of a 27-year civil war to become one of the continent’s major economic engines.
Longtime MPLA leader José Eduardo dos Santos oversaw many of Angola’s post-war economic growth and reconstruction efforts.
Lourenço is the carefully chosen successor of dos Santos, who ruled the country for 38 years and made himself and his family incredibly wealthy.
His daughter Isabel dos Santos became very powerful during his reign and was at one point the richest woman in Africa.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said in 2017 that “cronyism and cronyism” under dos Santos had “prevented ordinary Angolans from benefiting from the wealth of natural resources”. country, especially when oil prices are high.”
After taking office in 2017, Lourenço pledged to fight corruption and rejected the dos Santos family, firing Isabel and her brother from lucrative positions.
Former President dos Santos died last month while in Spain and his funeral will be held amid a tense election.
Angola’s capital Luanda is also one of the most expensive cities in the world, with a large expats working in the country’s oil and gas sector.
“We are not satisfied or satisfied with the actions of the government, we expect more from them,” Luanda resident Pedro Simao told CNN, while street vendor Madalena Mondole said she did not see it. What are the benefits of voting?
“If you ask me to vote, I have no one to vote for, because even if I vote, no one can help my son in life,” Mondole said.
Who are the candidates?
Estimate youth unemployment rate in Angola is 18.52% in 2021.
Costa Junior, 60, said the MPLA’s takeover was the cause of many of the nation’s problems, including poverty, inflation and corruption.
“There’s a single party in power, a one-party regime, a big cancer that this country needs to get rid of, a cancer that feeds everything to stay in power,” Costa Junior said.
He added: “Today we can see that everyone is tired of this party, the only party that holds Angola hostage for its own interests, the only party that does not allow Angola to become a democracy. “.
The MPLA and UNITA are on opposite sides of a civil war that began shortly after Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975 and ended 20 years ago.
However, analysts say this election is less about the country’s history and more about those who are struggling to get through and feel let down by their leaders.
The presidential poll will run concurrently with Angola’s 220-member parliamentary election.
