Angolans abroad to vote for first time, but wonder if it will change anything
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Loading... - Quenby Kouam
- 17 Aug 2022
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Dania Silva is excited to be one of the thousands of Angolans abroad to be voting remotely for the first time in their country's election next week, though she wonders whether her vote will change anything.
"I have faith but...I believe there will be no political change because there is a lot of vote manipulation," said Silva, 22, as she had lunch at an Angolan restaurant in Portugal's capital Lisbon, to where she moved a month ago.
If the past is anything to go by, Silva's fears are well founded. Previous ballots have been criticised as one-sided and not credible by civil society groups such as Movimento Mudei, as well as academics and opposition parties.
Around 14 million Angolans at home and abroad will head to the polls on Aug. 24 to vote in what is likely to be the tightest and tensest race since the first multi-party election in 1992.
"Nothing has changed in terms of the transparency of the election since 2017 so if the (ruling) MPLA sees that it's not doing well, it has the ability to falsify the results," said Justin Pearce, senior lecturer in history at South Africa's Stellenbosch University.
The MPLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It does not help that the government passed a law last year to centralise the final vote counting from all stations at home and abroad in the capital Luanda, a system that has raised fears about voter fraud, nor that most local media are state-controlled. Read More...
