Angolan president Dos Santos re-elected leader of ruling MPLA party

LUANDA Angola's long-ruling president Jose Eduardo dos Santos was overwhelmingly re-elected leader of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party on Friday, results showed.


Dos Santos, the sole nominee, won 99.6 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results gathered from delegates at the party's convention in the capital Luanda. Final results are expected late on Friday.


There had been speculation before the congress that Dos Santos, who has ruled the oil-rich southern African nation since 1979, might not make himself available for re-election.


He had said in March he intended to step down as party leader in 2018, without naming a preferred successor.


Angola holds its next parliamentary election in 2017 and the leader of the winning party will become president.


Dos Santos was appointed to a new five-year term as president in 2012 after the MPLA won national elections by a landslide.


(Reporting Herculan Coroado; Writing by Mfuneko Toyana; editing by John Stonestreet)

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