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As Angola votes, odds favour MPLA, but
Tasie Theodore
As Angolans head to the polls to choose parliamentarians and a president next week, the odds seem to favour the ruling MPLA but there are strong bets that if the process is permitted to be free and fair, it would face strong opposition from its main rival, UNITA, The Difference reports.
According to election watchers familiar with trends in the former Portuguese colony which fought a bruising war for Independence and a consequent civil war, the MPLA is caught up presently in a battle for legitimacy and popular appeal with a much rebranded UNITA stepping up to take any ground left open.
While UNITA under the previous leadership of the mercurial Jonas Savimbi was conveniently branded as a state outlaw, the new UNITA has reached across the aisle to take on a more accomodating, liberal and populist face. Its chances are also being bolstered by continuing economic and social crisis in the country, widespread poverty and lack and very importantly that a new generation of post-war voters, unencumbered by the atrocities of the previous era are voting for the first time this year and have very little to be grateful to a ruling party that has supervised the affairs of the Southern African state since 1979 with very little recorded progress even in this oil-producing nation.
President Joao Lourenco of Angola
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