Angolan President Joao Lourenco pledged that youth job creation will be one of the priorities of his administration after the national electoral commission confirmed his ruling party as the winner of last week’s vote.
“We hear and will correctly interpret the wishes of the people and the youth, to whom we will pay special attention,” Lourenco said in the first speech to his party after the final count was announced earlier Monday. “We will be strongly committed to creating more job opportunities. This is the time to open the doors of opportunity to our young people.”
Lourenco’s Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, retained its parliamentary majority in the Aug. 24 election, winning 124 of the 220 seats, the electoral commission said. The vote nonetheless marked the worst-ever result for the party, which has held power since independence from Portugal in 1975.
The main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or Unita, won 44% support and 90 seats in the legislature, its best performance. Its leader, Adalberto Costa Junior, last week rejected the provisional result, which was almost identical to the final count, alleging irregularities.
Spokespeople for Unita weren’t immediately available for comment on Monday.
The MPLA has progressively shed support in the four elections held since a civil war ended in 2002, a reflection of mounting dissatisfaction over widespread graft, poverty and unemployment. More than half of Angolans under 25 are unemployed, according to the national statistics institute.
“The MPLA should celebrate this result in a modest manner,” said Manuel Alves da Rocha, an economics professor at the Catholic University of Angola in Luanda, who has taught many of the nation’s top government officials.
Lourenco will be sworn for another term next month and then name his new cabinet. While he’s unlikely to offer any posts to Unita, it would be positive to see independent officials included in the executive, according to Alves da Rocha.
“Angola’s problems -- poverty, unemployment and weak health and education services -- are too serious for the next government to ignore others,” he said. “Convergence should start in parliament, where Unita is now a force that can no longer be ignored.”
Lourenco said he was satisfied with his party’s performance in the election, noting that its majority in parliament would enable it to continue to govern alone.
“The result is good because we won. We have won five times in a row,” said the 68-year-old former defense minister, referring to the last five elections in Angola that the MPLA party won. “When you win five times in a row you have reason to open at least five bottles of champagne.”
Bloomberg
