Upcoming elections

On August 23 Angola will hold the first national election since 2012 and this is a BIG deal since the current president is stepping down after 38 years! Brief history lesson- Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975- directly after independence the Angolan Civil War started.  There were 2 main groups fighting for power, MPLA who was backed by communist countries like the USSR and Cuba and UNITA who was backed by the US and South Africa.  Elections occurred during the war but as you can imagine they were hotly contested affairs but MPLA has held the position of president for the entire 42 year history of an independent Angola. The current president has been the leader of the MPLA party since 1979.  The civil war ended in 2002 with the death of the UNITA leader but elections didn't occur again until 2008 and then again in 2012, both times with MPLA winning by a landslide.

Their system is a sort of Parliamentary system so the party that wins the most seats holds the position of president.  We assume MPLA will maintain the majority and a new leader has already been identified but it might be an interesting 2 months.  We have been assured the Angolans don't have a taste for revolt after living through the horrors of a 27 year civil war that decimated their country (see side note).  But you do hear them wanting change - there is a lot of corruption in the government and many citizens seem to feel that corruption leaves them poor and without access to basic services like medical care, medications and clean water.  UNITA has had a few rallies - below is a video out our window of the most recent.  It was maybe 50 cars long, lots of chanting but no issues.



We expect election day will end up being a holiday for the company since all citizens are expected to vote in their home "precinct" and most drivers and employees live outside the city so they won't be able to come to work.   I figure it will be like a hurricane party for us here in the apartment :)

Side note- it is hard to grasp that every Angolan over the age of 20 lived through a bloody civil war.  Our driver is in his mid-40s and it hard to think his whole life included war.  I have yet to ask him about it but we know that he speaks some French so we assume his family fled to the Congo at some point.  Things here are sometimes frustrating and part of that has to do with what seems to be a lack of care about the future or progress but when you remember what they have been through you realize they have a hard time thinking past today or next week - survival is key here for the Angolans.

And a few random pictures from the past week:

Movies have an intermission here!

All day, every day!  Ladies carry items on the head, piled high, load changes but always entertaining to see

10 eggs not 12- what!?

Leak in our A/C unit (very common) - our building is Chinese built so the repair guys can be fun to try to communicate with but they are quick to help out!  This was 6:30 at night 

View from the balcony - those are 3 federal police officers- they roam the streets  - interesting sight