Angolan Constitution Assures Smooth Presidential Transition
Angola’s two-year-old constitution is considered by many to be one of the most advanced in the world. In its more than 200 articles, the document assures its citizens a wide range of rights –including the respect for human dignity, social justice and political participation. But the constitution has also been criticized, especially one article that states the leading candidate of the winning party will automatically be appointed as the president of Angola.
April 18, 2012
Details can make a difference when it comes to writing a constitution. That’s the opinion of legal expert André Thomashausen when asked about Angola. Thomashausen is the director of the University of South Africa’s Institute of Foreign and Comparative Law.
He focuses on what he considers to be the most important detail of Angola’s constitution: the president is no longer chosen by direct vote. Instead, the presidency goes to the leading candidate of the party than won the country’s general elections.
"That's
something original," he said. "There isn’t any other constitution in the world that does it.”
South Africa has a similar approach, though it provides a role for the National Assembly in the naming of the president.
For example in 2009, the African National Congress, the ANC, won the elections, and the National Assembly chose the party’s leader, Jacob Zuma, to head the government.
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