Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ 38-year reign over Angola finally came to an end on Tuesday when his hand-picked successor, Joao Lourenco, was inaugurated as president at a ceremony in Luanda.
Lourenco read an oath in which he vowed “on my honor to devote myself” to the role of president, as he took power after the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) won last month’s election.
Dos Santos, who was at the ceremony, but is reportedly in poor health, surprised many by announcing his retirement earlier this year, saying that he would not be a candidate in the election.
The MPLA has governed since Angola’s hard-fought independence from Portugal in 1975, with Dos Santos taking power in 1979.
The party won 61 percent of the vote last month, a sharp drop in support from the previous election in 2012 as the country suffers an economic crisis triggered by a fall in oil prices.
Party loyalist Lourenco, 63, until recently the minister of defense, delivered a speech to several thousand people at the ceremony, vowing to tackle the country’s abject poverty and jobs shortage.
“Employment, poverty alleviation, promotion of opportunities and business policies will be implemented,” Lourenco said, adding that he would govern for “all Angolans.”
Lourenco also paid tribute to his predecessor, saying that Dos Santos “accomplished his mission with unusual flair.”
Opposition parties boycotted the inauguration after denouncing “irregularities” in the election, saying the ballot was marred by unfair media coverage and suppression of opposition voters.
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, the main opposition party, this month dropped its threat to refuse to attend the Angolan National Assembly over its complaints, while the Angolan Constitutional Court dismissed its case alleging election flaws.
Though seldom seen in public, Dos Santos, 75, has been a looming presence in daily life for as long as most Angolans can remember, maintaining fierce control throughout its devastating civil war and a short-lived oil boom.
Dos Santos’ reign saw the end of the 1975-2002 war and a post-conflict investment boom as the country exploited its oil reserves.
However, the slump in crude prices in 2014 hit the country hard.
Dos Santos was Africa’s second-longest-serving leader — one month shy of Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Nguema was present at the ceremony, along with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila, South African President Jacob Zuma and other African leaders.
Dos Santos’ regular visits to Spain for “private” reasons fueled criticism that the state of his health was being hidden from ordinary Angolans.
Earlier this year, his daughter, Isabel — who has become a billionaire and Africa’s richest businesswoman under his rule — was forced to deny rumors that he had died in Spain.
She heads state oil company Sonangol, while his son, Jose Filomeno, holds the reins at the nation’s sovereign wealth fund.
Critics have often accused Dos Santos of ruthlessly suppressing dissent and enriching his family and the ruling elite.
Amnesty International called for Lourenco to “guide the country out of the spiral of oppression” and castigated Dos Santos’ “appalling human rights record.”
Dos Santos is to remain MPLA party chief, and new laws have been passed to limit the unfettered presidential power he enjoyed.
The day after the vote, Lourenco denied that he would be a puppet ruler.
“I will have all the power. This country will not have two presidents,” he said.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said in a statement that the election and peaceful political transition was “a clear sign of the Angolan people’s commitment to democracy.”
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