Angolan opposition leader Isaias Samakuva on Thursday urged the holding of legislative and presidential elections in the southwest African country in September 2005.
In a new year’s message, the head of the former rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angloa (Unita) called on the legislature to complete a review of the constitution and electoral law to enable the holding of polls in the war-ravaged country.
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos echoed the call for the legislators to finish their work this year so that he could call elections, but he did not give a date for the polls.
He said in October that conditions for a general election would be in place within two years in the oil-rich country.
Angola last held general elections in September 1992, when neither Dos Santos nor his rival, then UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, mustered enough votes to win in the first round.
Fighting resumed in the country’s civil war, which had been nearly continuous since independence from Portugal in 1975, before a second round could be held.
The war finally ended in April 2002, shortly after Savimbi was killed in battle.
The mandates of Dos Santos, who has ruled Angola since 1975, and Parliament formally expired in 1996. – Sapa-AFP