LUANDA, Aug 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Angola’s Joao Lourenco was set to remain president, as his party maintained its lead in the country’s most hotly contested election in its democratic history, with nearly all the votes counted.
Results published by the country’s electoral commission gave the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) 51.07 percent of the vote, with more than 97 percent of ballots tallied.
This is significantly lower than it’s previous performance when it garnered 61 percent.
The main opposition group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Adalberto Costa Junior, stood at 44.05 percent a huge jump from 26.67 percent in the 2017 election.
The leader of the winning party automatically ascends to the presidency in the oil-rich former Portuguese colony.
The ruling party has seen a steady decline in support in recent peacetime elections. In 2012, it romped to victory with 71.84 percent against UNITA’s 18.66 percent. In 2008, MPLA won by 81.64 percent.
Its parliamentary share of seats dropped to 124 from 150 in the last election, while UNITA’s nearly doubled to 90 from 51 of the 220 parliamentary seats up for grabs.
The MPLA has ruled Angola for nearly 50 years since the country gained independence in 1975, before a civil war erupted, lasting 27 years and claiming at least 500,000 lives.
Multi-party elections in Angola were introduced in 1992.
But the MPLA’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos, first elected in 1979, remained in office until 2017 when Lourenco succeeded him for the first five-year term.
The latest election has been overshadowed by a struggling economy, inflation, poverty, and drought, compounded by Dos Santos’ death last month in Spain.
Lourenco, a 68-year-old former general educated in the Soviet Union, is credited with far-reaching reforms since taking power.
These include boosting financial transparency and efficiency, fighting sweeping nepotism and corruption, and promoting business-friendly policies to lure foreign investors.
More than 14 million people were registered to vote.
A team of observers from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) declared the election to have been organized in “accordance with international requirements” and Angolan laws. — NNN-AGENCIES
