Angola holds general elections Aug 24
Angolan President Joao Lourenco is seeking another term against opposition leader Adalberto Costa Junior of National Union for the Total Indepedence of Angola (UNITA) party who has sought to unify against him.
Angola’s President Joao Lourenco (L) and opposition leader Adalberto Costa Junior of National Union for the Total Indepedence of Angola (UNITA) party (R)
“The President of the republic calls the general elections for president and members of the National Assembly, and sets the date of August 24, 2022 for their holding,” the presidency said in a statement.
Lourenco’s People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party has ruled Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975. The party has survived through a bloody civil war, and oil boom and a bust.
Former Defence Minister, Lourenco was handpicked by former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to take the reins. He took office after the 2017 elections.
Dos Santos’s family had built a multi-billion-dollar business empire, while most of the nation’s 33 million people live in poverty.
Lourenco quickly turned on his erstwhile patron, opening corruption investigations that have targeted Dos Santos’s son, while probes overseas have delved into the affairs of his daughter.
Rival parties have coalesced around a single candidate, forming the United Patriotic Front to support Adalberto Costa Junior, who heads UNITA, the largest opposition party and former rebel movement.
He told reporters in Europe on Wednesday that he had little hope for transparent elections.
“The Angolan government has already shown that it has no will to hold transparent polls,” he said. “Between Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Joao Lourenco, nothing has changed regarding corruption.”
Dos Santos is accused of appointing family and friends to key positions during his 38-year rule, leaving the country with a legacy of both poverty and nepotism.
Lourenco has vowed to restore Angola’s oil-dependent economy and fight graft, leading a purge of his predecessor’s administration focused mainly on the former first family.
The dos Santos children have accused Lourenco of a political “witch hunt”.
Angola’s 2022 elections: What you need to know
On August 24, Angolan political parties face their tightest race ever in a general election. African Editors explains who’s running, the burning issues , and why the contest is so intense.
Angola’s President Joao Lourenco is under increasing pressure in the run-up to the country’s election: His political rival in the presidential race, Adalberto Costa Junior, is ahead in most opinion polls.
In the major cities, where most Angolans live, and among the younger generation, dissatisfaction with Lourenco and his government and the desire for political change is pronounced.
The general election is expected to be the tightest contest since democratic elections were first introduced in 1992.
The parties and the candidates
Eight political formations — seven parties and one coalition — are vying for the 220 seats in the National Assembly.
The ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is headed by Presidential Incumbent Joao Lourenco and the Angola’s biggest opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) is headed by presidential candidate Adalberto Costa Junior.
Adalberto Costa Junior heads the National Union for the Total Indepedence of Angola (UNITA) party
There is also the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), the Nationalist Party for Justice in Angola (P-NJANGO), the Humanist Party of Angola (PHA), the Social Renewal Party (PRS), the National Patriotic Alliance (APN), and the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola Electoral Coalition (Casa-CE).
The top candidate of the party that wins the most votes is elected president, in accordance with the Angolan constitution. Joao Lourenco and Adelberto Costa Junior are the front-runners in 2022.
Florbela ‘Bela’ Malaquias of the Humanist Party of Angola (PHA) is the first woman to run for president in Angola
The voters
According to the National Electoral Commission (CNE), more than 14 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the general election.
This year marks the fourth election in Angola’s post-war period and the fifth electoral process since 1992. It is also the first in which Angolans living abroad will be able to vote.
In recent weeks, civil society groups have repeatedly complained about flaws in the electoral process. One of their claims is that millions of deceased citizens are still included in the electoral lists.
Moreover, many voters have been assigned polling stations at a distance from their places of residence. This is especially true of Angolans in the diaspora.
An anti-government demonstration in Angola’s northwestern Bengo Province in 2021
National and international observers
Hundreds of observers are set to be involved in the election. The CNE recently announced that the limit of 2,000 national and international observers has been reached. The CNE has invited observers from organizations and blocs such as the European Union, the African Union, the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the US Carter Center, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region.
A poster of the ruling MPLA in Angola’s capital Luanda
Members of Parliament
The National Assembly consists of 220 deputies. A total of 130 representatives are elected from the national lists of the parties, according to the number of votes obtained by each political formation in the elections. The remaining 90 parliamentarians are elected based on provincial lists, with each of the 18 provinces electing five deputies.
Currently, Angola’s ruling MPLA, in power since Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975, holds an absolute majority, occupying 150 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the opposition UNITA, with 51 deputies, and the Casa-CE, with 16. The PRS has two deputies and FNLA has one.
The President of Angola heads the government and the country’s armed forces. The constitution also stipulates that the president “promotes and guarantees the regular functioning of state bodies, appoints judges, prosecutors, ministers and ambassadors, and “represents the nation internally and internationally.”
The president is not directly elected. The first on the list of the most popular party is automatically appointed president.
Campaign issues
Issues such as unemployment, education and vocational training are major concerns in the Angolan election campaign, as is poverty in general and the best ways of combatting it.
There is also a significant focus on corruption. The ruling MPLA has been accused of using state resources for its 2022 re-election campaign. President Lourenco made the fight against corruption a key issue in his first election campaign in 2017. He promised new compliance rules for state-owned enterprises, especially the oil industry.
Powerful former generals and the children of Lourenco’s predecessor have since been subject to investigation.
Isabel dos Santos is the daughter of Angola’s former president
Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was forced to give up her board position with the state oil company Sonangol. She is being investigated for embezzlement and corruption. Her Brother, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, who used to manage the state oil fund, received a prison sentence for mismanagement and corruption. Another daughter of the former president, Welwitschia dos Santos, lost her parliamentary seat and has since left the country.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos was Angola’s President for 38 years before he was succeeded by Joao Lourenco
The international dimension
During the current election campaign, the main rivals have accused each other of “making pacts with corrupt people.” The ruling MPLA has insinuated that UNITA’s election campaign is being financed by the children of the recently deceased ex-president dos Santos. MPLA has yet to provide any evidence to support this claim.
The opposition party has described Lourenco’s anti-corruption measures as “cosmetic” and aimed only at publicity. These have no impact on his own allegedly corrupt cronies, they argue.
Angola is rich in oil, gas, diamonds and other resources. It is also a key partner in the global effort to stabilize the Great Lakes Region. The country has tried for years to mediate in the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. Angola is also a key economic partner of the US and the EU.
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