the president of Angolan, Joao Lourencowas sworn in this Thursday for a second five-year term after winning the August 24 elections, in a colorful ceremony and with the support of the international community despite allegations of electoral fraud by the opposition.
“I, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, upon taking office as President of the Republic, swear on my honor to carry out my assigned duties with all my dedication,” said the leader of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and president of the country since 2017, during his oath in the Republic Square in Luanda.
After the oath, the public broke into applause while chanting the last name of the Angolan president.
During the ceremony, the new vice president of Angola, Esperança Costa, was also sworn in, becoming the first woman in the country to hold that position.
The Constitutional Court validated the results of the elections on the 8th, thus dismissing an appeal filed by the main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which believes it won the elections and did not attend today. the investiture of Lourenço.
UNITA, which insists on rejecting the electoral results, presented this Tuesday before the Constitutional Court an extraordinary appeal of unconstitutionality against its decision to reject its challenge to the general elections.
In addition, he called on Angolans to protest against the results of the vote.
In recent days, Angolans have been able to observe a large police deployment in the streets of Luanda and other cities in the country, as well as numerous soldiers, a fact that UNITA has denounced as an attempt to intimidate citizens.
According to the electoral authorities, the MPLA, the only party that has governed Angola since its independence from Portugal in 1975, won the August 24 elections with 51.17% of the vote, winning 124 of the 220 seats in the National Assembly.
UNITA, led by Adalberto Costa Júnior, was in second place, with 43.93%, equivalent to 90 seats, the best result in its history.
According to Costa Júnior, the vote count data in his possession do not coincide with those approved by the National Electoral Commission.
The ceremony was attended by heads of State or Government of Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Cuba was represented by its vice president, Salvador Valdés Mesa; the Government of Venezuela sent its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Faría; and Nicaragua sent its advisory minister and presidential delegate for Africa, Mohamed Farrara Lashtar.
Spain confirmed its participation in the ceremony with the assistance of the President of the Senate, Ander Gil.
“Spain considers Angola a priority country in its foreign policy for Africa,” the Spanish ambassador to Angola, Manuel Lejarreta, said Thursday on his Twitter social network account about what is also the second largest oil producer in Africa.
The event was also attended by the president of Portugal -former Angolan metropolis-, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the president of the Commission (secretariat) of the African Union (AU), Moussa Faki Mahamat.
Likewise, the United States sent a presidential delegation and China its special representative of the Chinese Government for African Affairs, Liu Yuxi. EFE
