"I voted for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola [UNITA], but the fear I have is of the CNE in Angola, everything is manipulated, the statistics, the number of people alive, the dead voting, and the company hired to doing the electoral process is the worst and everyone is afraid", he told Lusa, during the vote at the Angolan consulate in Lisbon.
"The biggest problem is that we are afraid, I don't care if it's UNITA or the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola [MPLA], what worries me the most is the National Assembly, because if it's not practically divided and they're always in charge, we will continue to suffer".
"They", explains this Angolan emigrated to Portugal for three years, are the MPLA, in power in Angola for 47 years.
"I voted for Adalberto Costa Júnior to change because I was born in the war and I am still living with the dramas of the past", he says, remembering that he was "forced, at the age of 20, to emigrate to South Africa" through Namibia hidden in a fuel truck.
"To move from Namibia to South Africa, I had to get into a fuel tank with seven men for 45 minutes just to escape Angola and not be a soldier, because I was 20 years old and there were already raids in Angola to force me to be military", he says.
Very critical of the actions of the MPLA, José Miguel says that social action in the country is carried out with MPLA shirts, which confuse the population, who thus thinks that it is the party that carries out these governmental initiatives.
"The population, when they see someone giving food, a motorcycle or an 'input' for agriculture wearing a shirt, they think that the MPLA is doing it. The population is so illiterate that they have no information about what social action is, they confuse population", he criticizes, adding that the party has been in power for too long.
"It's really just alternation [which is necessary], it's a long time for a party to be sitting in the chair, you have to give others the opportunity, there's alternation and change, but they shouldn't become enemies", he defends, leaving the question in the air: " He [President João Lourenço] enters with the intention of ending corruption, but I ask who is from the MPLA and did not commit corruption, the life they have was given by the man who died now [former president José Eduardo dos Santos ] and they all know".
Rosa Almeida, based in Portugal for 20 years, has the opposite opinion, for whom the MPLA symbolizes Angola's continuity on the right path.
"I voted for my president, for continuity, he in a short time that he is in the government, with the economic difficulties that we went through, in half a year he managed to solve several social problems, in health, education and agriculture", he explains, after leaving from a circle of friends, who are "all from M, nothing against".
"We are on the right path and we think that he will have to continue working, with his effort and counting on us, we must help him so that the country starts to get back on its feet", says this Angolan emigrant.
Asked about the perception of corruption and almost half a century of power by a single party, Rosa Almeida admits some problems, but guarantees that the people continue with the MPLA.
"The president who died did a lot, he left his legacy to the other president and he is continuing [the work done]. We had problems because some government officials were not serious for the former president and he took some serious measures, solve the problems and they must continue to solve them", he says, concluding: "The strength of the MPLA is a strength that the people have, the people like the MPLA, with all its flaws, but it is our MPLA and no one else has the capacity to withstand and work for the people other than the MPLA".
A different story has Joaquim Fernandes da Silva, who came to Portugal at the beginning of the pandemic, already hoping to be able to vote for the first time abroad for the elections in his country.
"I felt like an Angolan citizen with the right to vote and I fulfilled my citizenship duty, I advise my compatriots to do the same", he says.
When asked directly about who he voted for, he prefers to sidestep the issue, praising the possibility of Angolan citizens voting abroad for the first time, but then says he is unhappy with the governance of João Lourenço.
"I am not happy with the governance because I feel that there are many flaws", he commented, pointing to real examples in health, education, wages and support for the most disadvantaged population.
"Another flaw is hunger, I have relatives and colleagues in Angola who with what they earn cannot satisfy their hunger, they have to resort to schemes and odd jobs, I don't think it's fair, these are the ills that we'll see if the next candidate improves, it's necessary correct what is wrong and improve what is good", he says, recovering a slogan from the MPLA, but whose addressee is UNITA.
Voting in Lisbon and Porto, the two cities where it is possible for Angolans to vote, started this Wednesday at 7:00 am, and goes on until 5:00 pm.
According to the CNE focal point in Lisbon, Carlos Santos, everything is proceeding as normal.
"There is absolutely no problem, we have to correct details that need to be improved, but everything is running perfectly," he said.
