Angola to register for polls
2006-11-09 21:28
Luanda - The process to register voters for Angola's first elections after a 30-year civil war, due to begin next week, will not cover all parts of the vast southern African country, said officials.
Virgilio de Fontes, head of an inter-ministerial committee on the electoral process, said: "The process will start on the November 15, but only in some areas."
The government had previously announced that registration would begin in mid-November, but had not indicated that it would take place on a piecemeal basis. The process is due to continue until June 15 next year.
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power since 1979, has pledged to stage the historic ballot before the end of next year, but has not set a date, sparking repeated complaints from the opposition of dragging his feet.
Home to 15 million people
Dos Santos, 64, is yet to formally confirm whether he will seek a fresh mandate but is widely expected to do so.
Angola, one of the largest and most sparsely populated countries in Africa, spans an area of 1.2 million square kilometres and is home to 15 million people, of whom an estimated seven million are entitled to vote.
The civil war that raged from 1975 to 2002 cost about 500 000 lives, displaced another half a million people and caused, according to dos Santos, about $40bn in economic damage.
- SAPA