Ah, this is al jazeera and these other top stories. Now the russian hill, this Operation Nuclear plant in southern ukraine, has been reconnected to the countries power grid after been disconnected twice on thursday. Thats according to the International AtomicEnergy Agency of fire, reportedly damage to power lines. Chiva moscow accuse each other of attacking the facility. Human human rights chief shall bachelor has condemned the attacks on its apparition. I called Russia Presses to halt armed attack against a crate. This happily shipler needs to be immediately the militia race. Both parties must respect and old times any all circumstances, international humorous law and international humanitarian. A russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decrease to increase the size of Russias Armed forces. Russian media reporting staff will be expanded from 1900000 to over 2000000. That includes an extra 137000. 00 military personnel. The increase will come into effect on the 1st of january next year. The former British Ambassador to me and mom has been arrested in the country. Vicki bowman and her husband were detained in young, gone on wednesday. Her husband campaigned against the military genta in the 19 ninetys. Hundreds of thousands of wrangler, a marking 5 years since they fled a military crack down in the amount close to 1000000 people are now living in whats become the Worlds Largest refugee camp in bangladesh. Focused on that former prime minister, iran car has been granted bail bond, Anti Terrorism court in islamabad. The case relates to a speech card made over the weekend and resume next month. Hes accused of threatening the police and the judge who ordered the arrest of his top aid. Heavy rains and flash floods that have devastated large parts of hockeys start showing no sign of letting up. Tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes. 900. 00 people being killed years present, joe biden, to sign an executive order worth more than 52000000000. 00. And that subsidizing manufacturing and research of semiconductor chips. Its only electronic chips have been in short supply around the world. Since the coven 19 pandemic started those are the headlines and is continues here on al jazeera us after inside story. Ah, the ruling party at angola is set to remain in power following widely contested election. The Peoples Movement for the liberation, although gola has governed for nearly 5 decades, the opposition disputes these results could that lead to renewed turmoil in the african country . This is the inside story. Ah. Hello morgan to the program. Im kim vanelle and golden Election Commission said on thursday the ruling party m. P l a. Had a strong lead over the opposition. The opposition unita had hoped to capitalize on young peoples frustrations of poverty. The election is and goal is 4th, since the end of its civil war in 2002, the emperor lay has ruled angola, finelli, 5 decades. Most of its on the president shows a while dont those santos, who was in power from 979 until 2017. The opposition had pinned its hopes on mobilizing young people frustrated about high unemployment. The lack of basic Public Services in the country with great oil wealth. Lets take a look at some of the key moments of uncalled is recent history. The country gained independence and 975. 00. That marks the end of portugal, colonial congress, and goal that took place 7400 years. But also the start of civil war between the in p l. A and opposition movement. You need a former president shows a lot of samples, became president in 1979. He attempted to improve relations with the west, especially the united states. That didnt recognize the impair, lead government. 2002, the 25 years of intermission conflicts came to an end. The last election was held in 2017 when incumbent president john lorenzo succeeded, shows a blood samples. Ah, lets bring it out. Guests. Josie gama joins us from the toria. He is a member of the move, a civil civic crowd movement, an organization that works for fair and transparent elections. In angola, borges now meet a joint us by skype from the total. He is a Research Consultant at the institute for security studies, africa, and merisa low. And so is an independent political analyst focusing on and goal mozambique and south africa. By the way, she is not related to and goal is president lorenzo. She joined us by skype from johannesburg. Very well. Welcome to each of you. Id like to start with you, Maurice Miller and so, so as weve been saying, polling so far as showed that the m. P l a is out ahead. We are waiting for the total vote, count the announcements. Do you think though that this is a done deal . The m p l a will retain power . It seems to be, although of course you need it has already indicated that it will challenge that. It will result once it is finalized, especially because it does look like the m p and they will come out with a 50 plus one majority, which would allow it to retain its parliamentary mon majority and then very easily install incumbent president lorenzo, for a 2nd term since the a 3rd of the result to announce last night, the gap has closed between the p a n janita. So the pennies got about 52 percent at the moment and you need to trading with about 44 percent. Its close, but what the vote all at the end of counting, it would mean that you need to is unlikely to catch up to the m p l a. To come up with the most votes on top at this point. Ok, jose a comment pretoria, as we heard there from marie said, the opposition is disputing the results. How is that likely to play out . Whats going to happen next . Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. So what i, what i look so in this election there was 14000000 people resistor of water. But unfortunately, we dont know many people really what was on the, the list of the electro, what they are like 2500000 people who already died. But fortunately, the Electoral Commission order the steps to remove those, those people. So you need there is doing like parallel counts. And according to what they announce, they say though theyre willing to these election but dont otherwise. Yesterday the Commission Election announced that he was having with the 60 percent, but today they said that everybody is now like 52 percent. So what, what do you want to look at this is like that in many years ago, that was, that was running by the sun for many years. And after some time, people realize that the, the problem, one goal it was from, was from those from, from a Single Person that was at the, one of the centers. So in 2017, it was some step down. And lorenzo came so low and so people were believing that the solution was there. So after sometime lawrence was coughing, the son was doing almost the same as the santos, the life of the life of the people didnt change that much. So now people belief, thats the problem, but the Single Person is not the, the leader of the really but, but the problems is the system itself, the problems is itself. So thats why now people went to what went to cars and decides to remove 2 votes against gate. Right . So this kind of this election was to penalize the really, but or just not made a was heard there. You need her doing a parallel count. But thats obviously apart from the national Electoral Commission. So if these 2 are sides, if you want to call them that are coming up with different results, what is going to happen . Could that lead to post election violence . Thank you. I think yes. With electra, the ballast is already expected in a federal fault because people a position in is she did not try electron by the so whatever resides, National Director commission to bring in terms of the few guys. People not trusting that, but also we can see that in elanda, which is their capital of color. And you need to is winning. And you wind as well. Well have it to where every day its just such a network. Where do you have a, you know, people speaking loud so it means we can foresee some kind of android for and define that it was that maria seller. And so whats the Playing Field being like in the lead up to these elections . So there has been greater concern over transparency, avoid counting more than in other inaction years. And thats because in november last year, parliament obviously led by the m p l a passed a know that would centralize vote counting in lawanda. And this meant that instead of votes being counted prevention, me that be counted centrally. And what thats done effectively, its removed the layer of transparency from the board count. And this is raise a lot of concern that because the. Busy National Editor commission, and because court are partial to emulate that, they could be more widespread manipulation. I think what weve also seen in the meet up to this connection over the past 12 months is we have seen the Holding Party quite nervous of you need to great popularity. You need to, has really modernized, its moved away from its reputation as, as a party of war veterans. It resonates with the urban youth and we sold the candidate, for example, try to and all. Well, i mean there are the courts turn out the need, a strip of you need to. It ultimately wasnt successful. You know, weve, weve sort of seen a take various moos over the pulse hoffman indicated that it is nervous and that it does realize it has the kind and popularity over the past 5 years. Okay. Just say gama. Even if the m p l a wins, it has one a much smaller percentage of the vote than previously. How has this election been different in your opinion . Compared to comparing to the previous election . So in this election, the people, the people, the fault as was the one or try to control for the self, the election. So mess this election, most of the people went to the for the policy to the i mean the policy, i mean to the pull, they went to the one where i realized the went to the known stuff that was like people on those on the least of the water, the people are the one, why not the right . Is it . And the people is like now the people are the one was supporting you need that. They mean the, i said the, the civil side. So what do we expect in these election specially on these the results the, theyre not, theyre not the results, but it should be. The results by policy, by policy, by one is the policy and what theyre doing, theyre just not the the, the faults from provincial and this kind of this, this is whats the announced. Theres not technical value because yes, actually theres not that can go value. You can, you can calculate that with the actually we dont know whether it comes from, i think the what the, what is, even even though you can go to what is thats the see and see if a web web page, you cannot control the, you can not realize if this really feasible. So if theres that ability on the i think, comparing to the previous for the previous election. Now we is according to the results of the new outcome, were going to have like an environment and thats ones will be good for democracy. So this is the one that im going and read with needs a balance of balance in terms of, of the, of parliament. Ok. But just a made a how has lorenzos presidency been while the 1st 5 years also present government was, will say 3 things to the majority of it had been to land for almost mindset, conducting a few different states desk people upset because of a, you know, in in turn, i resigned, but also problems like a corporate pandemic. So den prime in the number line. So high deposit number is increased ad m and prices off of basically good. Have been swearing a lot and stuff. Im going to have this and draw which is killing people and its livestock. So in summary, and they live and not improving. The goal is did want to add, add, returned to see how much difficult would the live in 2017 when president is already studied. His term and now people will find that, okay, it was better intensive indeed saw people present john russell did, leading a very difficult time. Probably also in the last the price of oil has been, you know, reducing and moreland. Oil is demand export to food, men export for more less so unfortunately, did not improve their lot. Thats why i presented. Theres only one the 2nd element to make it different, but it is not only in economic sector, but also in the political sector, democracy to democracy in umbrella. And i do not improve at all. Actually im going to read it as a non 3 conference, indifferent internet and the next day. Crap dont stupid arrives. Civil Society Space is crossing international indefinite media as well as not reading. So i think that performance of credential notice was very, very low compared to what was expectation of okay, merisa. Lauren, so would you agree with the assessment of president lorenzos time . And i mean, has he been presiding over a non free country . I agree that hes been providing over an honestly country. I mean, and girl, isabel is only a nominal democracy, but i do disagree that he hasnt marked a departure from his previous i think that we are looking at an a girl that in some ways is a very different to what it was before he came into office, i think his political and economic reform agenda has definitely been a mixed bag of success. I think its been full of contradictions, but i dont think that we should say that he hasnt changed much of that. He hasnt at least recorded some achievements. And i think really, the main achievement of the administration has been happening. The debt load, theres a massive debt load and it reached over 120 percent of total gdp in 2020. And of course, we had to manage the throughout global shocks, like the curve with 900. 00 and demick, and of course, the russia, ukraine conflict. And this of course, has not been easy at all, but what that rents administration did since coming into office in 2017. It rarely committed to fiscal prudence. It rained in waste and expenditure. It predicated its budget on a worst Case Scenario for the oil price. And it really showed commitment to not spend the, you know, to raining and superfluous spending, which was quite a big talk because it, it didnt have much room to do that. And i think that that commitment has been really good, of course though, as well as just has already pointed out the actual standard of living hasnt improved one goal. So while we sort of had the broad achievement on the talk to the economy, it hasnt really trickled down and you know, and girl, if any, one of the most, an equal societies in the world. And i think that, thats very clear to see. And thats something that hasnt improved. And then if we look at as political reforms, he did tackle some cases of corruption. But of course they also some murky figures in government that you know, have not really had to answer for the full corruption under that assumption. Administration and then i think one of the biggest disappointment, fuller in so was the failure to uphold his promise to hold local inaction in 2020. And this really came about because the m p l a. And the stands that you need to is much more popular in urban areas. But it also indicated that despite his promise to not be as repressive and to open the political space, he wasnt really going to follow through on that promise. So again, really and expect successful or in so. Okay, heres a comma over in pretoria, people under 30 make up more than 2 thirds of the goal is population. Many of them obviously have no memory of the civil war. How does that shape what they want to see . Whats important to them and who they vote for . So one of the things that you have to understand is that in this election, so there was new water from a 2018 to 24. 60 percent of the photos youth and in color we do have in terms of unemployment rate. Its 605058 percent. So thats mean 58 percent of those bought the unemployment. And those are the ones contesting regularly. The power of president john racial and probably those, those are the ones who vote against the, the emperor, but on otherwise, really, but refused to say that this, that young people, i mean, when those young people come to go to sleep in process, they really say to them that they have been instrument the life by you need that and they become very, very, very angry with the way that the, the, the really deal with them. So its like a new structure, new new what, thats the people that they never, never, they never knew a mean and they didnt, theyre not related to those who came in from the gorilla was similar rise with what the war and those ones people. I mean theyre coming from university in that the facial ones, well protest and then wrestle and we think thats a 202027 its. Its look like we are facing the claims of april. Yay. And the showings. And so we live, live in face to face on the following 5 years. It will be going to be a talk with the people and the rest of the flags. They use the flexible corruption. And during those 5 is the last, the 10s of 5 years. It fails, the filter. Points of with corruption, both the Center Points from corruption in the goal. Was the sun on gold . The state come and this 5 years never touched on a goal. You never go. Theres no, theres no visuals from sun and gold. Thats a facing try. Oh, all and allies by corruption. Ok. Boys. Yes. Not a unique to has been accused of not making it strategies clear other than being and t m p l a. Whats your take on that . I think that that is very good position. We see that to designate a candidate but of course as junior and hes bringing pets. They say i can just mention some of them. One example, they said something which is relevant for the context of and gala and african counselor. We have a duly tied to the written movement. He said, by the time he is elected to present a phone call that it now says the lead that you need that so that he can 700 percent to gain access to government. And thats very important because well look at one of one of them. Now, we want to understand the difference between m p a, n d, the state and state. Actually, the one who is living in emperor live sometime living in the state and making all that confusion that create a kind of a citizen, a prime prime class. And 2nd class, the sense bank does run the primary class, the one who are members of m. P l yes. So thats just one example up a dad liam proposal from you need to kind of do that just an acquisition and get that brought in new ideas. That idea. Thats why they have improve thei