FOR the past 25 years, Angolans have been trapped between the rock of the UNITA rebel movement and the hard place of the ruling MPLA.
Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) cadres fought side-by-side with the Angolan MPLA and the Cubans to defend Angola's independence.
Manuel Vicente, a 56-year-old wheeler-dealer who for 12 years ran Sonangol, the state-owned oil giant until his appointment this year as economics minister, was named as the number two and likely heir.Last time, in 2008, the MPLA won 82% of the vote.
But Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Angola's president for the past 22 years, has announced that he will voluntarily step down as president both of his party, the MPLA, and of the country, when the next election is held.
Having won the long civil war, members of the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) feel they deserve a share of the spoils.
The remainder are fronts, created and financed by the MPLA to promote the myth of democracy.
As Portugal, the colonial power, withdrew in a hurry in the mid-1970s, it became clear that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a revolutionary Marxist group, was going to win power.
A 14-year war of independence against its former Portuguese masters until 1975 had been followed by nearly three decades of fighting between the communist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and Jonas Savimbi's pro-Western National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) that ended in 2002.
The country's first democratic elections in 16 years, held in 2008, were reasonably fair, with the MPLA winning more than 80% of the vote.
The main opposition, Unita, doubled its vote to 19%, whereas the MPLA tally was down by ten percentage points and it lost a lot of ground in the capital, Luanda.
If you thought the ruling party, the MPLA, was no more than a bunch of crooks, well, the rebels of Savimbi's UNITA were worse.
