Dos Santos Sworn In As Angola President
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was sworn in Wednesday after his party won the oil-rich country's third elections, the first t...
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Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was sworn in Wednesday after his party won the oil-rich country's third elections, the first time in his 33-year rule he has been formally elected.
The ruling MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) was elected with 71.8 percent of the vote on August 31.
According to new election laws passed in 2010, the head of the winning party automatically becomes president for five years.
Regional observers declared the August polls free and fair, though opposition parties protested irregularities and boycotted the swearing-in ceremony.
It is the first time that Dos Santos, Africa's second-longest-ruling leader has won at the polls.
Dos Santos took the oath in front of an 8,000-strong crowd in the capital Luanda. Dressed in a striped red tie, he was flanked by his wife Ana Paula in a stunning blue gown.
"The country has already held two other democratic and multiparty elections, in which a clear majority voted in favour of the MPLA and its leader," said Dos Santos in his inaugural address.
"The fact that this formal investiture ceremony only happens today means that this time all the possible earlier doubts have been completely cleared up."
Parliamentary polls were held in 2008, in which the MPLA won 81.6 percent of the vote.
In 1992, a first round of polls was held in which Dos Santos came first with 49.6 percent before his chief opponent, Jonas Savimbi of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), withdrew from the race, plunging the country back into a civil war that raged from 1975 to 2002.
Dos Santos also used his address Wednesday to commit to a more transparent government and closer links to the country's youth.
His government has been criticised in the past for being secretive over oil revenues.
Youth-driven protests demanding democratic reforms have also increased in the past two years.
According to new election laws passed in 2010, the head of the winning party automatically becomes president for five years.
Regional observers declared the August polls free and fair, though opposition parties protested irregularities and boycotted the swearing-in ceremony.
It is the first time that Dos Santos, Africa's second-longest-ruling leader has won at the polls.
Dos Santos took the oath in front of an 8,000-strong crowd in the capital Luanda. Dressed in a striped red tie, he was flanked by his wife Ana Paula in a stunning blue gown.
"The country has already held two other democratic and multiparty elections, in which a clear majority voted in favour of the MPLA and its leader," said Dos Santos in his inaugural address.
"The fact that this formal investiture ceremony only happens today means that this time all the possible earlier doubts have been completely cleared up."
Parliamentary polls were held in 2008, in which the MPLA won 81.6 percent of the vote.
In 1992, a first round of polls was held in which Dos Santos came first with 49.6 percent before his chief opponent, Jonas Savimbi of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), withdrew from the race, plunging the country back into a civil war that raged from 1975 to 2002.
Dos Santos also used his address Wednesday to commit to a more transparent government and closer links to the country's youth.
His government has been criticised in the past for being secretive over oil revenues.
Youth-driven protests demanding democratic reforms have also increased in the past two years.
