Luanda — After an orderly and peaceful electoral campaign, Angola returns to the polls this Wednesday, 24th, to elect, in a single move, a new President of the Republic, the vice-President and a 220 Parliament seat.
In accordance with the electoral law, the campaign officially started on July 24 ends on August 22, with the 23rd being reserved for reflection without any kind of partisan electoral propaganda.
The eight competing political parties expressed their satisfaction with the smooth way in which the campaign took place, recognising the lack of "major incidents" throughout the national territory.
For 30 days, presidential candidates or their representatives traveled through the country's 18 provinces to display" the governance programmes for the next five years.
In their campaign, the candidates focused on mobilisation of their supporters urging them to refrain from violence and not respond to provocations throughout the process until after the announcement of the final results.
Signs of some tension began to emerge as the campaign heads into home stretch, with a "tug-of-war" around the "voted, sat" rhetoric that started to divide UNITA, the main outgoing opposition party, from the remaining competitors.
This option advocated by UNITA leader Adalberto Costa Júnior invites voters to stay close to polling stations after voting, as a way of "inspecting" the operation, rather than going home.
Whereas, the other candidates, including the outgoing President and candidate for his own succession by the MPLA party, João Lourenço, advise the voters to completely abandon polling stations immediately after voting, to avoid crowds capable of causing disturbances.
Those who support this option, which became known as "voted, left" are based on the law that prohibits, in its article 109, the permanence in polling stations of voters who have already voted, but admits presence at a minimum of 500 meters away.
Seven political parties and a coalition of parties are standing for the 2022 elections.
They are the MPLA, UNITA, PRS, FNLA, APN, PHA and P-NJANGO as well as CASA-CE coalition.
