Angolan President Joao Lourenco is scheduled to be sworn in for a second term on Thursday amid tight security after a controversial election victory last month.
The inauguration will take place in the historic, palm-lined Praca da Republica square in the center of the capital, Luanda.
AFP correspondents saw large numbers of police and military forces patrolling the streets ahead of the ceremony – a presence the main opposition party said was aimed at quelling dissent.
“This order aims to intimidate citizens who want to demonstrate without legitimacy against the election results on the day of a president’s inauguration,” the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) said in a statement.
Several heads of state and government are expected, including Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Lourenco, 68, returned to power after his People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) won a slim majority in an Aug. 24 vote with just 51.17 percent of the vote.
The vote elected MPs, with the largest party automatically electing the President.
It was the MPLA’s worst performance in the oil-rich African country it has controlled since independence from Portugal in 1975.
UNITA — a former rebel movement that waged a bitter 27-year civil war against the MPLA government — made significant gains, garnering 43.95 percent of the vote, up from 26.67 percent in 2017.
Opposition parties and civic groups say the vote was marred by irregularities.
UNITA challenged the findings in court, but its appeal was dismissed.
“I’ll stay at home tomorrow. There are too many police forces in the city,” said Joao, a high school student who gave only his first name, at a bus stop on the outskirts of Luanda.
– “President for all” –
Under its charismatic leader Adalberto Costa Junior, 60, UNITA has proved popular in urban areas and with young voters clamoring for economic change.
It did particularly well in the capital, where it won the majority for the first time.
Instead, the MPLA lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament, its seats falling from 150 to 124.
Lourenco struck a conciliatory tone after the vote, promising to promote “dialogue” and be the “president of all Angolans.”
But Costa Junior has said he will skip the inauguration and has promised protests over the outcome of the vote, but has said his party will join the new parliament.
Foreign observers from elsewhere in Africa praised the peaceful conduct of the elections but raised concerns about press freedom and the accuracy of the electoral roll.
The former general first came to power in 2017 when he succeeded longtime ruler Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who left a country mired in recession and plagued by corruption and nepotism.
Lourenco quickly turned against his predecessor, launching an anti-graft campaign against his family and friends in what critics call a political stunt.
He also launched an ambitious reform program to attract foreign investors and diversify the economy.
But so far this has not improved the prospects of many of Angola’s 33 million people stuck in poverty.
Dos Santos died in Spain in July. State funerals for the late strongman were held in August in the same square where Lourenco is scheduled to be sworn in.
