More than 14 million people called to vote on Wednesday in Angola’s general elections

Aug. 24 () –

More than 14 million people, of which more than 22,600 are outside the country, are called to vote in Angola this Wednesday in the closest elections since its independence from Portugal following a crushing economic crisis that has suffocated the country’s youth.

The polls have opened this Wednesday at 7.00 am (local time) in an election day that will have a total of 80,182 troops of the state security forces, as reported by the newspaper ‘O Pais’.

According to the president of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Manuel da Silva, there are more than 1,300 national and international observers, as well as 26,488 voting tables, as reported by the newspaper ‘Jornal de Angola’.

Da Silva stressed on the eve of the elections that citizens must show a civic, orderly and responsible attitude, compatible with the festive atmosphere that characterizes these elections in the country, as reported by the Angop news agency.

The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), represented by the current president, Joao Lourenço, and the Dos Santos family, starts as favorite, since the last polls place it seven points ahead of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) of the opposition leader Adalberto Costa Junio.

It should be remembered that of the 14 million citizens called to the polls this Wednesday, a third of the total are young people and another good percentage is part of the diaspora, so the youth vote, as well as those abroad, is crucial in these fifth elections in the country’s history since 1992.

The latest Afrobarometer survey highlights that about half of Angolans consider that the National Electoral Commission exercises its role in a neutral manner, while about a third think that it favors particular groups.

Costa intends to take advantage of youth discontent to become an emblem of political regeneration. Lourenço, it should be recalled, is a veteran MPLA member and former defense minister, who won power in 2017 as the hand-picked successor to José Eduardo dos Santos, whose authoritarian rule lasted 38 years.