Angola prepares for new President after four decades

Angola, a former Portuguese colony and the second largest oil producer in Africa, is preparing for the likely election of defence minister João Lourenço as president as the country's ruling MPLA takes lead in electoral results.

Provisional results from Wednesday's election showed that the MPLA received 64.57% of the vote, according to the Angolan electoral commission.

However, the country's main opposition party, Unita Party contested the results after learning from the commission's count that it had only obtained 24.04% of the ballots.

The election of João Lourenço would end nearly four decades of rule by José Eduardo Dos Santos, who decided not to stand for re-election this time, although he was to remain in control of the MPLA party.

The outgoing president had been in power since 1979, making him Africa's second-longest serving head of state after Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.

Angola plunged into civil war after achieving its independence from Portugal in 1975, which raged for almost three decades until the killing of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, and subsequently morphed into the second largest oil producer in Africa.

For the country, which had been a member of OPEC since 2007, oil production and its supporting activities represented about 45% of the nation's gross domestic product and roughly 95% of exports.

It was a veritable rags to riches story, with the capital city of Angola, Luanda, now ranking as the world's most expensive city for expatriates after overtaking Hong Kong at the top.

Indeed, for expats renting a two bedroom unfurnished apartment of international standards in Luanda could set them back by $6,065.67 per month, according to HR firm Mercer's 2017 annual cost of living survey.

The country's newfound attractions had not been lost on international investors either, including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who visited Angola in 2005 leaving with promises to extend over $2bn in new credit, alongside a $3bn credit line that Beijing had already given to Luanda.