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News release

Angolans’ approval of their president on the decline, say country is going in the wrong direction, new Afrobarometer study shows

19 Aug 2024 Angola
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News release
Key findings
  • About one-quarter (26%) of Angolans “approve” or “strongly approve” of the job performance of President Lourenço, an 18-percentage-point decline since 2019 (Figure 1). o Approval rates are above average among older respondents (38%), rural residents (40%), and citizens in Huíla province (45%) and the Southern region (46%) (Figure 2).
  • Only small minorities approve of the government’s performance on keeping prices stable (7%), narrowing gaps between rich and poor (9%), creating jobs (11%), improving living standards of the poor (11%), managing the economy (15%), and other key social and economic indicators. Most of these assessments have worsened compared to 2019 (Figure 3).
  • Three-quarters (75%) of Angolans say the country is going in the wrong direction, while only 21% see Angola as moving in the right direction (Figure 4). o Residents of Luanda province (85%) and those in the North (86%) are most likely to see the country as going in the wrong direction.
  • Majorities of citizens describe their own living conditions (56%) and the country’s economic condition (68%) as “fairly bad” or “very bad” (Figure 5).

Only one in four Angolans approve of President João Lourenço’s performance,  extending a sharp decline in public satisfaction over the past five years, according to  the most recent Afrobarometer survey.  

Since 2019, citizens have been especially critical of the government’s performance on  managing the economy, creating jobs, improving the living standards of the poor, narrowing  gaps between rich and poor, and keeping prices stable.  

Majorities describe the country’s economic condition and their personal living conditions as  bad, and three-quarters say the country is going in the wrong direction.