Angola President and Africa's longest-ruling president, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, is set to end his 38-year-rule as Angolans vote for a new leader.
Angolans cast their votes Wednesday in an election marking the end of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos's 38-year reign, with his MPLA party set to retain power despite an economic crisis.
The MPLA, which has ruled since Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975, is expected to defeat opposition parties, which are stifled by Dos Santos's authoritarian regime.
Dos Santos's unexpected retirement - reportedly prompted by poor health - has triggered the biggest political transition in decades for Angola, a leading oil exporter in Africa.
However, his chosen successor is Defence Minister Joao Lourenco, a loyalist expected to avoid immediate change in a government often criticised for corruption and its failure to tackle dire poverty.
"My mission will be to revive the economy," Lourenco told reporters in the capital Luanda on the eve of the vote.
"If I succeed, I would like to be recognised in history as the man of Angola's economic miracle."
Dos Santos's long reign has seen the end of Angola's bloody civil war that lasted from 1975 to 2002, and a post-war investment boom as the country exploited its oil reserves.
But the flood of money brought little benefit to Angola's poor, and government spending collapsed when oil prices fell in 2014.
Inflation hit 40 per cent at the end of 2016, when annual growth was less than one per cent.
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