People of the South

Earlier this month, the world watched (sort of) as Angolans went to the polls to vote in a new National Assembly, and indirectly elect their president. MPLA — the political party in power in Luanda since Angolans won independence from Portugal in 1975 — surprised no one when it claimed about three-fourths of the ballots and voted to extend José Eduardo dos Santos’s 33-year presidency five more years.

Then Público, one of Portugal’s leading left-of-center dailies, printed Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s message to dos Santos like he’s still overseeing the colony. After patting both countries on the back for their efforts to promote peace, stability, and democracy, he assures dos Santos that they are “in this together” in the twenty-first century.

International media coverage has continued, as opposition parties challenge the legitimacy of the election results based on irregularities in the electoral roll and vote-counting.

We can’t stop watching. We’ve even started a scorecard to keep track of all the ways English media outlets blame China. Coverage breaks down according to strategic national interests: