Angola's ruling party, MPLA, confirms President Lourenço's bid for a second mandate

Angola's ruling party, MPLA, elected on Friday, President João Lourenço as the candidate for the August 2022 presidential elections.

The election of João Lourenço for a second mandate takes place five days after the main opposition party, UNITA, elected Adalberto da Costa Junior as their candidate.

During is speech, the president appealed to the support of women and young people.

"And we are sure that with the commitment of young people, the commitment of women and the commitment of our activists, we can say with certainty that the August 2022 party is already here!", announced the João Lourenço, President of Angola.

The current president replaced former president José Eduardo dos Santos in 2017. 

Dos Santos stayed in power for 38 years.

"This is an historic congress taking place at a time when the party is celebrating 65 years of its foundation, the congress was well attended, for the first time the party has the principle of parity with thirty five percent of youth in the party and in fact the party is strengthening", said João Mauricio, delegate of the province of Kuanza Sul.

The current president has vowed to restore Angola's oil-dependent economy and fight graft, leading to accusations of a political witch hunt by the former first family.