Page "Politics of Angola" Paragraph 1

Angola changed from a one-party Marxist-Leninist system ruled by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( MPLA ), in place since independence in 1975, to a multiparty democracy based on a new constitution adopted in 1992.

That same year, first parliamentary and presidential elections were held.

In the former, the MPLA won an absolute majority.

In the latter, President José Eduardo dos Santos won the first round election with more than 49 % of the vote to Jonas Savimbi's 40 %.

A runoff election would have been necessary, but never took place.

The renewal of civil war immediately after the elections, which were considered as fraudulent by UNITA, and the collapse of the Lusaka Protocol, created a split situation.

On the one hand, the new democratic institutions worked, notably the National Assembly, with the active participation of UNITA's and the FNLA's elected MPs-while José Eduardo dos Santos continued to exercise his functions without democratic legitimation.

An the other hand, the armed forces of the MPLA ( now the official armed forces of the Angolan state ) and of UNITA fought each other until the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, was killed in action, in 2002.