Angolans are heading to the polls to vote for a successor for their veteran leader.<\/p>\n
Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been in power in the oil-rich country since 1979, making him the world’s second-longest serving president.<\/p>\n
He is not contesting this election – Defence Minister Joao Lourenco is standing for the governing MPLA party.<\/p>\n
His main challenger is expected to be Isias Samakuva, from the MPLA’s rival in the 27-year civil war, Unita.<\/p>\n
Under Angola’s voting system, people are choosing both the candidate and party in the same election.<\/p>\n
Analysts says the MPLA, which has been in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, is likely to win.<\/p>\n
In the previous election, the Casa-CE alliance gained the third most seats. It is led by Abel Chivukuvuku, who split from Unita.
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Voters queued for the opening of polling stations this morning in Angola’s capital Luanda.<\/p>\n
The elderly were let in first to decide who will replace President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.<\/p>\n
But young people have been telling the BBC that they want one thing – jobs. They blame what they refer to as simply “the crisis” for the lack of employment.<\/p>\n
Critics of the government say rampant corruption means the country’s oil wealth did not spread beyond the ruling elite.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Angolans are heading to the polls to vote for a successor for their veteran leader. Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been in power in the oil-rich country since 1979, making him the world’s second-longest serving president. He is not contesting this election – Defence Minister Joao Lourenco is standing for the governing MPLA party. His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[10457,901,3],"yoast_head":"\n