Long-serving ex-leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who passed away in Spain in July but whose funeral was postponed by a family request for an autopsy, was laid to rest on Sunday in the presence of Angolans and dignitaries from other countries.
Dos Santos’ burial is being held days after an election that looked to have put his MPLA party back in power, though the results have been contested by the country’s major opposition coalition. Dos Santos passed away in a Barcelona clinic on July 8 at the age of 79.
Up until his death in 2017, Dos Santos and his family controlled Angolan politics for 38 years. It appears fairly certain that his previously Marxist party, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which has been in power for nearly five decades, will win.
The president of Angola’s former colonial master Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as well as other heads of state and top ministers from around the continent were scheduled to attend.
Authorities have been able to try and prevent any protests over the contentious provisional results thanks to the presence of foreign VIPs.
“Due to the state funeral of the late former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the national police appeals to all citizens, civil society and organized groups that intend to organize activities on Saturday and Sunday, to contain themselves out of respect for the former head of state,” Angola’s National Police said in a statement reported by the Lusa news agency Saturday.
The MPLA and President Joao Lourenco have a 51% majority after 97% of the votes have been counted, with the main opposition, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, lagging with 44.5%.
The results have been dismissed as fraudulent by UNITA’s leader, Costa Junior, and there have been small protests that the police have promptly put an end to. According to the election commission, the procedure was fair and open. Junior and Lourenco were both anticipated at the funeral.
Last weekend, after being delayed by a comprehensive autopsy that his daughter Tchize had demanded, Dos Santos’ body was brought back to the nation. The death, according to a Spanish judge, was due to natural causes.