On Wednesday, Angolans will go to the pools to determine if President Joo Lourenço will be re-elected to a second and final five-year term. He is competing on the platform of the ruling MPLA party, which has eight candidates for the top job.
What’s Happening
There are eight candidates contesting this election. His primary opponent is Adalberto Costa Jnior, the leader of Angola’s largest opposition party Unita. On October 5, Angola’s biggest opposition parties announced the formation of the United Patriotic Front coalition. Adalberto Costa Jnior of UNITA has been named as the FPU’s candidate to run against President Joo Lourenço in the August 2022 election, according to group spokesman Amandio Capoco in Luanda.
According to Capoco, the alliance is “an alliance of Angolans hungry for change.” Adalberto Costa Jnior responded by declaring his readiness to confront Joo Lourenço, claiming that “our homeland is calling out for change,” describing a country “struck by hopelessness and impoverishment.”
The Expectation
Most foreign analysts expect that the MPLA, which has ruled Angola since its independence in 1975, will win again, but many believe that this will be the closest election in the country’s history.
According to Angolan economist urea Mouzinho, this campaign has a different feel, and young people now are more comfortable and willing to question the country’s political elite.
The ruling party expressed their confidence about winning the elections on Wednesday.