Dos Santos pledges elections
2006-04-06 09:50
Luanda - President Jose Eduardo dos Santos offered assurances on Wednesday that Angola would this year or "at the latest" in 2007 hold its first elections since the end of the war four years ago.
Dos Santos said: "The government is preparing the conditions so that in the near future elections can be held.
"Therefore, this year or next year at the latest, elections will have to be held." He was speaking after talks at the presidential palace with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
The statement appeared to lay to rest speculation that Dos Santos was ready to postpone the historic vote indefinitely after suggesting earlier this year that the country's massive reconstruction would have to be completed before elections could go ahead.
Brutal 27-year-old war
While few believed that Dos Santos or his ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) could be unseated at the ballot box, the elections would still mark a milestone in Angola.
Dos Santos, in power since 1979, had steered the oil-rich country out of a brutal 27-year war that left sweeping devastation and claimed some 500 000 lives.
While he was widely expected to stand in the elections, Dos Santos declined to confirm that he would seek a new mandate.
He said: "It's an open question and I am thinking about it. For the time being, I have nothing more to say about that."
The president said that he was awaiting a report from the newly-formed National Elections Commission on whether conditions were ripe for holding elections in Angola, which was also struggling with one of the world's worst landmines problem.
Expanding economic ties
Angola was riding an economic boom, driven by oil, although more than 70% of its 14 million people lived in grinding poverty.
Leading a delegation of some 80 Portuguese business leaders, Socrates arrived in Luanda late on Tuesday for an official visit aimed at expanding economic ties with the former colony.
Dos Santos said he hoped that Portuguese businesses would set up a shop in Angola and produce locally, reducing Luanda's dependence on imports.
Portugal and Angola signed agreements on tourism, development aid and export protection.
Socrates announced that 200 Portuguese teachers would be sent to Angola this year to help strengthen education.
The Portuguese prime minister said: "The time has come for Portugal and Angola to work together, but mostly to help Angola with its development."
While Portugal remained Angola's top import partner, its economic ties with Luanda remained modest compared to the billion-dollar deals that the United States and China had struck in the oil sector.