Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Thursday that the oil-rich African nation would hold its delayed parliamentary elections on September 5 and 6 next year, the state-run Angop news agency reported.
An estimated eight million Angolans are expected to vote in the election. The country has not held a national poll since a disastrous 1992 presidential race was aborted after the first round, leading to the resumption of a civil war that ended in 2002.
”The will of the Angolan people must express itself with truth and without limitations on September 5 and 6 2008 in the legislative elections,” the Angolan leader said in an end-of-year address to the nation, Angop said.
Dos Santos’s government has delayed the polls several times, citing the poor condition of roads and other infrastructure as reasons. Western diplomats and executives generally agree that there were nagging doubts whether he would risk a free election.
The Angolan ruler, who has been in power since 1979, is expected to run for another term when the former Portuguese colony holds its presidential election, which is tentatively scheduled for 2009. — Reuters