AFRICA/ANGOLA - Waiting for the outcome of the elections that will determine dos Santos’ successor

Thursday, 24 August 2017 elections   bishops  

Luanda (Agenzia Fides) – Angolans voted on Wednesday in an election marking the end of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s 38-year reign.
About 9.3 million registered voters were called to the polls to elect the National Assembly of 220 members; the winning party will elect the President. The MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola) has designated his successor, Joao Lourenco, a party loyalist who served as defence minister.
On the eve of the vote, the Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and Sao Tomé (CEAST) reiterated their appeal to competing parties and citizens, for the elections to take place peacefully in order to reflect the political and democratic maturity of Angolan people.
And indeed no major accidents were registered.
His Exc. Mgr. António Francisco Jaca, Bishop of Caxito and Secretary General of CEAST, had asked Angolan people to continue to live in peace and to ensure that "the elections become a feast of democracy".
Mgr. Jaka urged "to grow as a Country, showing democratic maturity and demonstrating that we can move on". "We can walk together as Angolan brothers without resorting to violence, voting", he concluded. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 24/8/2017)


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