In Angola, close elections for the ruling party

In Angola, close elections for the ruling party

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Once elected in August 2017, Joao Lourenço warned: “There is money in Angola and we will find it.” The head of state, who is seeking a second term on Wednesday 24 August in the legislative elections that then led the deputies to elect the president of the republic, then launched a broad campaign against corruption. He has called on tax exiles to return their money to this Portuguese-speaking country in South Africa, the continent’s second largest oil producer (about 1.1 million barrels a day), but where more than half of the population lives on less than $1.9 a day. .

Early in his tenure, João Lourenço had mainly tracked down the petrodollars kidnapped by the family of his predecessor, José Eduardo dos Santos, who died on July 8, and whose funeral is scheduled for the weekend, in Luanda, in a tense context.

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Isabelle, the eldest daughter of the man who ruled with an iron fist from 1979 to 2017, will not go to the funeral. A 2020 investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) dubbed “Luanda Leaks” revealed, among other errors, oil resource looting orchestrated at the top of Sonangol, the state-owned company that manages the income from black gold. , of which she was the manager.

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The company that the Angolan street called “Princesa” today should return more than 400 million euros in stock to the company. Isabel dos Santos is also under investigation in Portugal, where she has sat on the board of several banks. As for his half-brother, Jose Filomeno, whose father put him at the head of a sovereign fund of $ 5 billion, he was sentenced in 2020 in Luanda to five years in prison for fraud and money laundering.

Inflation rate is about 21.4%

“Angola has recovered assets representing more than 9.6 billion euros of public property”, received the Minister of Justice, Francisco Queiroz, in February. For his “clean” operation, João Lourenço, a former artillery general trained in the Soviet Union, received congratulations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the event of re-election, the candidate of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), whose picture appears everywhere along the airport road with the slogan. “compulsory verb” (“People’s Power”), promised to increase the minimum wage and wages for civil servants. Will that be enough? Even if he remains the front-runner in the polls, the poll promises to be tight.

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About the Author: Irene Alves

"Bacon ninja. Guru do álcool. Explorador orgulhoso. Ávido entusiasta da cultura pop."

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