Africa, Headlines

POLITICS-ANGOLA: Test of Lasting Peace – Campaigning Begins

Louise Redvers

LUANDA, Aug 8 2008 (IPS) - Angola may not have had an election for 16 years, but it certainly knows how to campaign.

Flags and posters adorn cars and taxis across the city and people of all ages are proudly wearing t-shirts and caps showing their party colours.

The campaigning period kicked off on this week ahead of the September 5 poll and there are rallies, conferences and leaflet drops going on in every town across the country.

Ten parties and four coalitions of a further 24 parties are in the running, but the majority of votes are expected to go to the ruling MPLA (Popular Movement for Liberation of Angola) and its old civil war enemy UNITA (Union for the Total Independence of Angola).

The other smaller parties hoping to claim some of the 220 National Assembly seats up for grabs include PRS (Party of Social Renovation), FPD (Democratic Front) and FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola).

The MPLA is however very confident of victory.

Its campaign is slick and organised and it has bottomless funding thanks to the booming state-owned oil and diamond companies.

Campaign co-ordinator Rui Luis Falção Pinto de Andrade, whose official job title is director of information and propaganda, said: "We have three million members, we are the biggest political party in the world."

Defending criticism of his party's government for not doing more to develop Angola since the end of the war in 2002, he said: "The Angolan people are conscious that we were more than 30 years in war and we've only had six years of peace, but in six years of peace we have done many things.

"Our people recognise this and more than that, our people recognise that the MPLA is the only party that can lead into the future."

Questioned about Angola's high levels of poverty and problems, Falção shrugged and said this was a case of demographics and every country had poverty, even places like the United Kingdom.

By contrast however, UNITA leader Isais Samakuva opened his campaign declaring that Angola's biggest problems were social exclusion, poverty, unemployment, the education system and corruption.

"It's true our economy is growing, but it's growing badly," he said. "More than 90 percent of the nation's wealth is stolen by the state and is concentrated on less than 0.5 percent of the population of around 18 million."

Despite their different approaches to solving Angola's problems, one thing that unites all parties is the fear of another war.

The memory of the renewed fighting sparked by the 1992 elections is still fresh in many people's minds and with recent events in Zimbabwe and Kenya, everyone, regardless of their political affiliation, knows Angola needs to work hard to prove it can have a peaceful election.

In an address to the nation on state radio on the eve of the campaign, President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos called on his people to respect each other and asked that the only weapons used were those of words and debate.

Luisa Morgantini, head of the European Union observation mission which arrived in Luanda this week, praised Dos Santos and the other political leaders for their "language of tolerance" but said of course the election would be a challenge for the country.

She referred to the "trauma of the 1992 election" and said she hoped everyone would look forward from that and ensure the poll was peaceful.

There will be more than 100 observers visiting communities and polling stations around the country in the coming weeks and of course on September 5 itself.

So far there have only been reports of isolated low-level intimidation – including death threats and some flag burning – in some more remote provinces.

And according to many, this is as extreme as the violence is likely to become.

One Western diplomat said: "There are some local tensions, but these are isolated and localised, we're not talking about organised intimidation campaigns. There is no indication this is happening.

Although they added: "Intimidation can be subtle too – vote MPLA and avoid another war is something a lot of people feel and say."