Lúcia Destineza, 29, does not publicly say which party she will vote for in Angola’s elections scheduled for next Wednesday (24) — the vote, after all, is secret, she says. But she stresses what she expects: “We want change.”
The Angolan has lived in Brazil for seven years, where she graduated as a nursing technician and continues to study in the area. This will be the first time she will vote in her country’s elections, something that will only be possible because, in an unprecedented way, the Angolan diaspora will have access to the vote.
There will be 22,560 Angolans abroad voting in the election — about 0.15% of the country’s total electorate. People who will take to the polls their evaluation of Angola, often based on an awareness that they only acquired abroad through the exchange of experiences.
“When I came to Brazil, I started to have another vision; I matured”, says Lúcia. “I think we still have a lot to work on; basic needs, such as health, which nowadays should not, and could not, have. People are excited to make a good choice.”
The announcement of the possibility of voting in the diaspora excited citizens eager to participate in the selection process. But when the numbers of registered people were released, there was some frustration.
Survey by the Observatory of International Migration (OBMigra) carried out at the request of the Sheet shows that nearly 22,000 immigrants from Angola have been registered in Brazil since 2010. Only 1,660 Angolans, however, are registered to vote, and most have registered at the Consulate General in São Paulo (1,181).
The OBMigra number considers permanent and temporary residents and asylum seekers. It is not possible to assess how many, in fact, remain in Brazil, but the data helps to have a dimension of the absence in the election.
The Angolan Embassy in Brasília is aware of 10,000 Angolan citizens in Brazil, Ambassador Florêncio Almeida told Sheet. Even the figure, admittedly underreported, shows the discrepancy. The diplomat says that the modest number of registrations is related to the fact that it is the first time that the diaspora will be able to vote, but also suggests other factors.
The impossibility of being absent from work to carry out the registration or even the financial difficulty to pay for transport enter the equation. Distances also matter: from January to April, Angolans were only able to register at the consulates in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, or at the Embassy in the Federal District.
The ambassador explains that four polling stations will be opened in these locations. To make it possible for Angolans from other regions —such as Bahia, where many university students are—to go to the polls, the diplomatic representation is thinking about organizing transport.
He stresses the importance of participating: “It reinforces our democracy.”
In Portugal, the country of which Angola was a colony, is the largest number of the diaspora registered to vote – more than 7,700, official data show. Then come Namibia (2,487), France (2,228), Republic of Congo (2,174), Democratic Republic of Congo (1,938) and, finally, Brazil.
Voters will have the mission to choose the party they trust the most and fill the National Assembly based on the party’s list of candidates. The president and vice president will be, respectively, the first and second most voted acronyms, a model that social movements do not like.
As for Lúcia, this will be the first time voting for many of the Angolans in Brazil, who make up a young community. As she was already in Brazil in 2017, Lúcia did not vote in the elections that raised João Lourenço, leader of the MPLA, the party in power since independence, in 1975. In the 2012 elections, she was already able to vote, but the designated place was far away from home.
For Euclides Victorino Silva Afonso, 26, it will be the second time. In Brazil since 2018, he is studying for a master’s degree at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, after graduating in history from Unilab.
He assesses that the administration of JLo, as the Angolan leader is known, left something to be desired. “When we elect a president, we want to see changes in the most vulnerable areas; but the government does not show improvement for these sectors.”
Euclides, however, thinks that the diaspora and the young population will give critical weight to the ballot. “Possibly a new era was born that made the young population pay more attention to the country’s politics.”
