Critic predicts ‘the beginning of the end’ for Angolan regime

In an interview with AFP, the 45-year-old outspoken campaigner — who was convicted of defaming military generals in 2015 and handed a six-months suspended sentence — dismissed Wednesday’s vote as rigged, but predicted that this is “the beginning of the end” for the regime.

In power since the country’s 1975 independence from Portugal, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is expected to remain the ruling party with candidate Joao Lourenco, currently defence minister.

Dos Santos, now aged 74 and reportedly in poor health, became president in 1979 but decided to step down after his nearly four-decades rule.

– What do you expect from the elections? –

These elections are essentially just a process because we already know what the results are. Most of the population also knows what the results are. The question is whether the MPLA will try to understand how unhappy the population is and give more space to the opposition.

– Are you expecting massive fraud? –

Angola facts

The MPLA won’t try to rig the elections, the elections are pre-rigged. In distant parts of the country, the ballots have been left at the homes of the traditional authorities … and there is no control of the police and the electoral commission.

You have many opposition members who have not been registered to monitor the elections as the law requires. There are many examples where people have been sent to vote tens of kilometres away to make sure they do not vote for the opposition.

– What will be Dos Santos’s legacy? –

Dos Santos’s legacy is corruption. It’s in the structure of the social fabric of Angola where people believe that the only way to improve their lives is through corruption. It’s not through hard work, it’s not through education, it’s not through contributing to the common welfare, but essentially as they say in French ‘debrouillez-vous’ — each one on his own.

– Do you expect any changes from his probable successor? –

With this new president, what we expect is someone who will try to assert himself by the use of sheer force, not through diplomacy, not through changing what is wrong, but essentially by trying to be more arrogant. And that is what will get him into trouble very soon.

– Do you think the regime’s days are numbered? –

I think this is the last election where people place their bet on the political parties. The next election will be about citizenry and people will themselves craft their own future. … The youth of this country has hopes. There is a kind of awakening which is important to take into consideration and which will become prominent in the coming years.

“For the regime, this change of president is the beginning of the end. The MPLA won’t last. It can finish this term but it will disappear into oblivion, if it continues to rely on corruption as its main policy,” said Marques

For the regime, this change of president is the beginning of the end. The MPLA won’t last. It can finish this term but it will disappear into oblivion, if it continues to rely on corruption as its main policy.

– What does the future of the country look like? –

We have 24 million people, we have many good people … we have to create public spaces for debate for those who have different ideas, so those who have integrity and honesty can thrive and not only the crooks.

– Who are you going to vote for? –

I won’t vote. That was my stance to remain outside the play and have the presence of mind to really see what is happening in the process. … The ruling party doesn’t abide by the law and it is my job as a citizen to continue to raise these issues until they abide by the law and end up in jail or out of power.