Angola’s Joao Lourenco gradually climbs the ladder of Angola’s next Presidency
According to the already released vote counted results by the Angolan Electoral Commission, chances of Angola’s Defense Minister Joao Lorenco being the next President are very high.
Angola held general elections on 23 August 2017, where the Angolans moved to the polls to cast votes for their desired next President. Joao Lorenco, Angola’s Defense Minister appeared on the ballot as a candidate representing the ruling MPLA party, set to replace the second longest ruling President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
The Commission’s results so far as released on Friday have shown Mr. Lorenco having 61% of the cast votes whereas a candidate from UNITA, the main opposition party, so far had 27% of the votes and another one from CASA-CE Alliance party managed to collect just 10% votes.
The Commission also informed that they had so far counted only 98% of the cast votes due to the delay in arrival of other ballot boxes and papers from different polling stations, especially in the remote areas.
However, the Commission stated that there isn’t a great deal of happening that will cause a change in Mr. Lorenco’s lead, since he appears way higher than his competitors.
Hence, this makes Mr. Joao Lorenco supposedly the next President of Angola.
However, the UNITA opposition party has already rose concerns of irregularities and incidents that they say occurred during the voting session, though, the commission and the international observers have denied the alleged accusations.
“We were in 14 polling stations and in each one of them, there weren’t any incidents of irregularities as the UNITA party claims,” said Luis Vales, an observer from Social Democrat Portuguese Party (PSD).
Luis added that, “Everything was perfectly organized, with a really good methodology, from the voters’ arrival to their identification and the casting of their votes.”
Antonio Filipe, an observer from the Portuguese Communist Party also defended the Commission by praising the quick and smooth process the voting was! He also commended the Commission for providing enough support to the voters when casting their votes, which he says, could be evidenced by everyone.
The UNITA party claims that the results that the electoral commission has so far announced are different from the ones they have, basing on the fact that they also carried out their own counting.
They also say that there was no way Lorenco could win, yet most of the people shown on different television stations during the campaigns, said they wanted change.
“I disagree because during the campaigns on state television, people said they wanted change.” Said Lociano Joaqim, an opposition member
Reporter: Shamilah Namuddu