Dos Santos promises free polls but short on details

President Eduardo Dos Santos used the occasion of Angola's independence day celebrations to deliver a speech promising elections and greater prosperity, but critics said he failed to outline a proper timetable for the polls. Thousands - including Portugal's president and several African leaders - turned up at Luanda's Cidadela football stadium on Friday for the festivities, the biggest celebrations since independence from Portugal 30 years ago. "The reality that the country is living today allows us to look with optimism to the realisation of the next elections," Dos Santos said in a rare address to the nation. "We are creating the material, institutional and psychological conditions for them to be free, transparent and with a high level of participation." Angola is set to hold elections in 2006 - its first since 1992 - but questions have been raised over whether the country will be ready in time, with the process of registering the electorate seen as a crucial test. "I expected something more concrete, mostly because there are a lot of expectations concerning the next elections. There is no date, even for the beginning of registration, so the president was very general - he didn't outline a framework," said one Angolan journalist. "After three years of peace he should be more precise about what Angola is going to do in the near future," the journalist commented. After struggling against Portuguese colonial rule, Angola's independence in 1975 was blighted by conflict between rival liberation movements, fuelled by the Cold War, and dragged on for 27 years until a ceasefire in 2003. "It's independence day, which we, of course, must celebrate. But now we need to start looking to the future," said Isaias Samakuva, president of UNITA, the former rebel movement and now largest opposition party. Dos Santos said he saw the trend of massive post-war growth in Angola continuing and added that this would help spur the country's development. "(Angola's) Gross Domestic Product grew by 11.7 percent in 2004, and our projection for 2005 shows growth of more than 10 percent," he said. However, to another commentator the independence ceremony was more about securing the ruling MPLA's image ahead of national elections as the only national party. "The whole show made it seem like the MPLA and Angola's history were one," the observer said, requesting anonymity. "As far as I'm concerned, this was day one of the election campaign and the MPLA did a very good job at it too." Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer - but most of its 13 million people live in abject poverty.