Like other movements forged during periods of sustained, violent, and ideologically driven conflict, the MPLA developed institutions and routines over the course of armed struggle that have left a lasting imprint on its methods of peacetime governance. Nicolas Lippolis is a doctoral candidate in politics and a researcher at the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford. Moreover, his problematic record points to fundamental shortcomings in the techniques of rule developed by the MPLA regime since coming to power in 1975. An overview of each of these areas shows that although his record is not one of unmitigated failure, all are beset by serious shortcomings. Duly backed by the party establishment, Lourenço acceded to power with the promise of tackling widespread corruption, putting the state’s finances on a sounder basis, diversifying the oil-dependent economy, and opening up democratic space. In the run-up to the 2017 elections, popular frustration with the MPLA was channeled primarily through calls for an end to José Eduardo dos Santos’ thirty-eight years of kleptocratic rule. Elections in 2008, 2012, and 2017 saw the party’s vote share decline from 81 percent to 72 percent and 61 percent, respectively.
The problems faced by the MPLA are not new.
With the MPLA’s popularity weakened by the social consequences of five consecutive years of recession (2015–2020) and very real perceptions of pervasive corruption, this might be the election in which the opposition massively breaks into the urban constituencies where it has been making inroads for the past decade. Dubbed the United Patriotic Front and operating under the charismatic leadership of UNITA’s Adalberto Costa Júnior, this alliance is mounting a powerful electoral challenge to President João Lourenço, who was elected in 2017. A newly united opposition has emerged from an electoral alliance between the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Angolan Renaissance Party–Together for Angola (PRA-JA), and the Bloco Democrático. The elections scheduled for August 24 promise to be a watershed moment in Angola’s electoral history, which has been dominated by overwhelming People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) victories since the country emerged from civil war in 2002.
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