With re-election secure, Angolan president is expected to reduce country’s dependence on China
- Angola has borrowed US$42.6 billion from Chinese lenders, much secured with oil as collateral but President Joao Lourenco has said such loans are not working
- Any shift is likely to be gradual: ‘China would remain the major buyer of Angolan crude for as long as Angola has to settle significant … debts’, one analyst says
On Monday, Angola’s Constitutional Court rejected the request – brought by the main opposition party National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (Unita) – to annul the results of the August 24 general election, contending that it was marred by irregularities. That cleared Lourenco, 68, to be sworn in for a second term later this month.
Lourenco’s ruling party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), received 51 per cent of the vote, continuing its hold on the country since Angola won independence in 1975. Unita got 44 per cent, according to the electoral commission.
Dos Santos had invited China to invest after Western governments declined to help the country’s reconstruction following the 2002 end of the 27-year Angolan civil war, saying it was risky.