Dos Santos hangs on
Angola’s new president Joao Lourenço has little chance of imposing his own stamp on the MPLA
In a carefully stage-managed process, Angola’s ruling Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has passed the presidential baton from José Eduardo dos Santos to former army general Joao Lourenço in an election marked by low turnout in even its Luanda stronghold. After early provisional results showed strong gains by two of the main opposition parties, the Nacional Elections Centre (CNE) stopped providing regular updates and the website of the Casa-CE coalition crashed under heavy traffic, never to recover. By the time CNE announced the final results last Friday, even die-hard ruling party supporters found it hard to muster much more than just a sigh of relief and the odd loud self-congratulatory car convoy. The results were announced under heavy security and in empty streets. No-one expected the MPLA not to win, but the margins — 150 parliamentary seats for MPLA, 51 seats to Unita, 16 seats for Casa-CE, two for the PRSA and one to the FNLA — raised more than a few eyebro...
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