The President of the Republic of Angola (Presidente da República de Angola in Portuguese) is both head of state and head of government in Angola. According to the constitution adopted in 2010, the post of Prime Minister is abolished; executive authority belongs to the President who has also a degree of legislative powers, as he can govern by decree.
The position of President dates from Angola's independence from Portugal. Agostinho Neto held the position when his then Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) won control of the country from the Portuguese. When Neto died in 1979, José Eduardo dos Santos succeeded him.
Under Dos Santos's leadership, Angola became a multi-party democracy. The most recent elections, held in 1992, reelected Dos Santos with 49% of the votes. Dos Santos's opponent, Jonas Savimbi of the National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) party, claimed that the elections were fraudulent.
In January 2010 the National Assembly approved a new constitution, according to which the leader of the party with the most seats in the Assembly would become president, rather than a public vote taking place. The new constitution also limits a president to serving two terms, although it does not count terms served to date, and abolished the post of Prime Minister, and introduced instead the post of vice-president.
Famous quotes containing the words president of and/or president:
“We must choose. Be a child of the past with all its crudities and imperfections, its failures and defeats, or a child of the future, the future of symmetry and ultimate success.”
—Frances E. Willard 1839–1898, U.S. president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union 1879-1891, author, activist. The Woman’s Magazine, pp. 137-40 (January 1887)
“[If not re-elected in 1864] then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)