Mário Cirilo de Sá, President of Executive Council	Caetano de Sousa President CNE

After hopeful but unsuccessful feints toward peace, Angola’s civil war finally ended with the signing of peace accords between the government and opposition factions in 2002. With the leadership of the UNITA rebels invited into the cabinet, and their soldiers integrated into Angola’s armed forces and national police, Angola is preparing to reap the sweetest fruit of renewed national unity: democracy. The legislative elections, scheduled for September 5th and 6th, will be Angola’s first votes since 1992.

Dr. Caetano de Sousa is President of the Comissão Nacional Eleitoral (National Electoral Commission, CNE), which is conducting the September vote. He believes that the new elections will require a different mindset from Angolan voters and politicians alike. “In a democratic environment, we have to change our thinking”, he says. “We have to accept differences so we can create an atmosphere of national trust and cooperatively develop common projects. I’m starting to think that we’re not faced with a serious difference of political agendas, but different approaches to the same common objectives. Ninety percent of Angola’s problems are related to limitations and constraints, and if we don’t come together democratically to examine our priorities, we’ll never reach consensus.”

Dr. de Sousa admits that Angola’s communications and roadway infrastructures are not yet up to the task of compiling up-to-the-minute election returns on a nationwide basis. To conduct the election, the CNE is combining new technology with old-fashioned organizational effort. “Our job is to ensure that there’s the right organization and the right logistics all across the country. We have to set up a system to allow each citizen to vote near their residence, which will probably mean about 8,000 voting locations. The votes will be counted in the provincial capitals and then forwarded to Luanda to tally up the final results”, he explains.

With the opening of Angolan society, the debate about the country’s priorities and projects is widening. General Mário Cirilo de Sá is President of the Executive Council at the Centro de Estudo Estratégicos de Angola (Angola Center for Strategic Studies, CEEA). General de Sá describes the CEEA as “an independent institution created to help build up strategic thinking about Angola’s development”, founded by a group of generals who recognized the need for a deeper analysis of the country’s challenges.

The general explains that the most important facet of Angola is the speed of its transition. “You have to remember that Angola is a country with less than five years of peace, and it has lived through many changes. We had a period where the economy was centralized and we were a single-party regime, and then the country transformed itself into a market economy and a multi-party framework in a very short time.”

Now, Angola is on the verge of another transition, to a peaceful state that is unfolding its democratic institutions. The primary contenders for power in September’s legislative elections are the ruling MPLA and the conservative opposition Democratic Renovation Party. Both parties currently share power in the cabinet formed after the 2002 peace accords. While the MPLA can point to Angola’s booming economy, Democratic Renovation has had the chance to gain valuable government experience and present itself as a viable alternative. After the new parliament is elected, the country will gear up for a presidential contest in 2009, followed by planned provincial and local polls.

It’s an incremental process of change, but one that General de Sà believes is already well underway. “If you compare Angola today with what it was five years ago, no one can deny that we are taking large steps forward. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are already being felt, and everyone’s opinion can contribute to the country’s progress.”