Working class and poor Angolans
continued to see no improvement in their
lives. In fact, Lourenço’s rule coincided
with a deterioration of living standards.
The effects of plummeting oil prices,
including IMF-imposed austerity, new
taxes, fewer jobs and rising inflation,
were keenly felt. Seeing people of all ages
digging through public trash containers
became a common sight in Angola’s largest
cities.
When João Lourenço became
president, he promised to improve freedom
of speech and freedom of the press. His
first months in office were indeed marked
by more openness. But it didn’t take long
for old habits to return.
The MPLA is a party that has an
inherent disdain for democratic ideals
and personal freedoms. The government
retained absolute control of mass media
and nationalised all the remaining
independent television channels and
most of the existing press. Competent,
independent newspapers in Angola can
be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Protests started to become violent again
and personal freedoms were
greatly curtailed, and the
president reneged on his
promise to institute local
elections.
A united front
opposition
As this was happening, the
opposition took concrete
steps to present a united front.
Unita’s new, charismatic
leader, Adalberto Costa Júnior,
quickly figured out that he
had to have youth support in
order to galvanise his political
project. He also realised that
he’d have more success if he
allied himself with the most
popular Angolan politicians
outside his party. Thus was
born Frente Patriótica Unida
(United Patriotic Front), a
loose alliance of popular
opposition parties spearheaded by Unita.
During the election campaign, it
quickly became apparent that the MPLA’s
rampant corruption and difficulties in
improving the lives of the country’s
citizens had taken their toll on a mostly
young, urban population. Their campaign
events were stilted and awkward,
characterised by apathy and indifference.
Attendees, mostly party members and
public servants, were coerced to attend
and bussed in from neighborhoods and
provinces far and wide.
Unita’s rallies, by contrast, were
much more boisterous; attendance was
voluntary and crowd sizes and diversity
reflected this. While Lourenço listed a
litany of supposed accomplishments that
weren’t felt by his audience, Adalberto
Costa Júnior talked about constitutional
reform, human rights, respect for
democracy and finally implementing
local elections. While one invoked fear
and insults, the other offered hope and
opportunity.A democracy only in name
Angola is a democracy in name only, and
our electoral system confirms this. Like
South Africa, Angola doesn’t have direct
presidential elections; voters select a
political party to lead the country, and
the head of that party’s list of delegates is
automatically declared the President. All
220 names on each party’s list are chosen
solely by the party. A voter has no say in
who their delegates are. We simply put a
mark on a ballot paper next to the face of
the leading candidate and the flag of their
political party. This can hardly be called
representative politics.
Angola has held five multi-party
elections in its history. In every one, Unita
has rightly contested the results, for theelections have never been truly free and
fair. MPLA’s total control of the state
and constant violations of constitutional
and electoral laws mean that it can act
with impunity. And it does exactly that.
Besides control of the Natural Electoral
Commission (CNE), it also controls the
Constitutional Court, which doubles as the
Electoral Court during elections.
Unita again contested the latest
election results until the very end, saying
that their parallel vote count differed from
the official CNE count. A civil society group,
Movimento Cívico Mudei, also conducted
its own parallel count and showed similar
results.Civil society was much more engaged
in these elections than in previous ones.
They decided to “protect” their vote by
making sure each polling station posted
voting summaries on their door, as
required by law. This spooked numerous
biased poll workers. They saw by how
much MPLA was losing, and violated
the law, deciding not to post voting
summaries, or only posting them after
considerable public pressure.
CNE refused to release their voting
summaries for comparison with Unita’s,
and the court refused to compel them to do
so. Once again, ordinary Angolans viewed
the process as flawed and their growing
distrust of public institutions continues
unabated.
Perhaps the greatest indicator of
purposeful voter disenfranchisement in
Angola is the official abstention rate. 14
million Angolans were registered to vote.
These included 2 million deceased voters.
55% decided not to even make their way
to the polling stations. They stayed home.
Of those that did vote, only about 30%
actually voted for the MPLA. Such is thecrisis of legitimacy facing the ruling party,
and the level of apathy, distrust and loss of
confidence in the Angolan political process.
The average Angolan does not
believe in their own public institutions,
and they do not believe that their lives can
be improved through the ballot box. It’s
becoming increasingly harder to convince
them otherwise.Cláudio Silva is a political analyst and
entrepreneur. He was born in Angola
and educated in the US. He moved
back to Luanda in 2013. He works in
the hospitality sector.Unita’s new,
charismatic leader,
Adalberto Costa
Júnior, quickly figured
out that he had to
have youth support in
order to galvanise his
political project.INTERNATIONAL