The Electoral Commission of Angola ratified the re-election of João Lourenço

First modification: 08/29/2022 – 21:36

This Monday, August 29, the Angolan National Electoral Commission (CNE) gave the final results of the presidential and legislative vote that took place on August 24. The final figures gave the winner to the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), with the current president João Lourenço as a candidate.

With 51.17%, it surpassed the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which obtained 43.93%, being the closest result since the southern African nation became independent from Portugal.

In an election characterized by both calm and low voter turnout -barely 44.82% of eligible voters turned out, just over 6.45 million people-, Lourenço won his re-election for the next five years and defended the hegemony of the MPLA, the only party that has governed Angola in its history as an autonomous country.

Manuel Pereira da Silva, president of the CNE, indicated that the score has been similar to the one that was disclosed on Thursday the 25th, when the numbers with more than 97% of the count carried out were published.

However, the validation of the Constitutional Court still remains, an instance in which the contenders can present some protest resource. For both cases there is a 72-hour deadline.

In this way, the MPLA will continue to dominate the National Assembly with 124 of the 220 seats; while UNITA will have 90 seats, its best result in elections.

Far away were the other six blocks. The Social Renewal Party (1.14%), the National Liberation Front of Angola (1.06%) and the Humanist Party of Angola (1.02%) won two seats each. The other spaces did not reach the floor necessary to have a parliamentary representative.

Beyond the victory, the MPLA suffered a marked setback compared to the 2017 edition, when it took 61% and kept 150 seats. On the other hand, UNITA improved ostensibly after the 26.7% obtained under the leadership of Isaias Samakuva five years ago.

The challenges of Lourenço’s second term

With the continuation of the current president, Angola will persist in its attempts to ingratiate itself with Russia and the West. With closer ties to Moscow, even refraining from condemning the Ukraine invasion at the UN session, it is a question whether the president’s attempts to reach out to the United States and Europe will advance.

Before the elections, the head of state asked to join a current trade agreement between the European Union and the countries of southern Africa, something that could have news in the coming weeks.

In addition, the MPLA has been harshly criticized for failing to contain the levels of inflation, unemployment and poverty, the latter reaching 50%.

Not even the boom in oil – it is the second largest producer on the continent – has been useful in stabilizing the class gap, quite the contrary. The riches have been accumulated by one sector, while the other has drowned even more in shortages.

Nearly half of young people up to the age of 25 are unemployed, a condition that led to massive support for UNITA.

Lourenço, a former governor of Benguela in the 1980s and a former defense minister, has fought political corruption even by arresting members of his space and recovering $5 billion for state coffers, but it has not been enough to improve his image. in an adverse context for the Angolan population.

With EFE and Reuters