Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos confirmed on Wednesday that the country’s first parliamentary elections since the end of a 27-year civil war will be held on September 5.
”The president has today, using his powers laid down by the Constitution, called the elections to be held on September 5,” said a statement from his office carried by the official Angop news agency.
”The legislative elections will be held across all national territory.”
The announcement comes a day after the Council of the Republic, a cross-party body chaired by the president, gave its final approval for the elections on being told by organisers that all preparations were now in place.
The elections, which were originally meant to take place in 2006 but which have been delayed on a number of occasions, will be the first since Angola ended a nearly three-decade civil war in 2002.
The vote is widely seen as a chance for 65-year-old Dos Santos, who has ruled the oil-rich Southern African nation since 1979, to test his popularity before deciding whether to contest a presidential election due in 2009.
The last national elections took place during a lull in fighting in 1992 when Jonas Savimbi, leader of the then-National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) rebel movement, stood against Dos Santos.
After losing the first round, Savimbi refused to contest a run-off as he alleged widespread rigging and the conflict resumed. — Sapa-AFP