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Angola Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Angola
Official Name: Republic of Angola
Capital: Luanda
Area: 1,246,700 square kilometres (481,354 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
Luanda 1,200,000 (1988 estimate)
Huambo 203,000 (1983 estimate)
Benguela 155,000 (1983 estimate)
Lobito 150,000 (1983 estimate)
Population: 11,072,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 3.7 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Transitional government, nominally a multi-party democracy, with a strong presidential system
Independence: 11 November 1975 (from Portugal)
Constitution: 11 November 1975; revised 7 January 1978, 11 August 1980, 6 March 1991, and 26 August 1992
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
Until the early 1990s, following the 1975 constitution, Angola was a single-party republic governed by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola-Labour Party (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola-Partido de Trabalho, or MPLA). Legislative powers were nominally exercised by the indirectly elected National People’s Assembly, but the MPLA was the government’s major policy-making body, and its chair served as president of the republic.
Angola held its first multi-party elections for president and for a new 220-seat parliament in September 1992. The necessity of holding elections was dictated by a 1991 peace accord between the MPLA and the guerrilla organization opposing the government, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, or UNITA). UNITA rejected the results of the election, however, and a scheduled runoff was delayed indefinitely. After a two-year peace process, a coalition government took office in 1997.
Angola is divided into 18 provinces, each governed by a commissioner appointed by the president. These provinces are further divided into councils and communes.
Recent History
Throughout the 1980s, UNITA, with military support from South Africa and the United States, waged guerrilla warfare against the MPLA. South Africa was also battling with the Angolan government over control of Namibia. In August 1988 a peace agreement was reached between Angola, South Africa, and Cuba that granted independence to Namibia and ended Cuban and South African military involvement in the Angolan civil war. The US government continued to send aid to UNITA but also pushed forward diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
The 1991 peace accord between the two sides provided for a ceasefire and the legalization of all political parties by May. President José Eduardo dos Santos called for multi-party elections to be held in September 1992, and a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force maintained order, but tensions and small skirmishes arose just before the election. When the MPLA emerged with the majority of seats in parliament and dos Santos received 49.6 per cent of the vote, UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi rejected the results as fraudulent, refused to participate in the runoff election, and resumed the war more intensely than before.
In 1993 the United States and other foreign powers officially ended their support of the warring parties. Daily relief flights by the UN World Food Programme were required to prevent mass starvation throughout the country, as most of Angola’s resources went toward weapons and other war costs.
In May 1995 dos Santos and Savimbi met in Zambia to sign the Lusaka Protocol, a peace accord drawn up by rebel leaders and government representatives in November 1994. The accord called for a ceasefire, which had been generally respected since November, and greater collaboration between dos Santos and Savimbi. The UN undertook the task of enforcing the treaty, the third since war broke out in 1975, by agreeing to send 8,000 peacekeeping troops to Angola in 1995.
A new coalition government, including former rebel leaders, was agreed upon as the final step in the peace process, but its swearing-in had to be postponed several times when UNITA members who were to be part of the new government did not arrive in Luanda. The installation of the new government and the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces were rescheduled for April 1997 after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pushed the process forward in a March visit to Angola.
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