Angolan president who studied in Azerbaijan re-elected chairman of ruling party

Baku. 20 August. REPORT.AZ/ Angola's ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) on Friday confirmed the election of Jose Eduardo dos Santos for another term as leader of the party.

Report informs citing the TASS, Dos Santos, the sole nominee, won 2,543 votes, or 99.6 percent.

There had been speculation before the congress that Dos Santos, 73, who has ruled the oil-rich southern African nation since 1979, might not make himself available for re-election.

Notably, 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 a landslide election win by the MPLA.

Santos was born in a builder family. In 1954, still at school, as a member of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) he began his political career. In 1961 he lived in France, then he moved to the Congo and began to cooperate with the (MPLA).

Santos held the position of Deputy President, has decided to continue his studies in the USSR, and, having arrived in Baku, graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute (AzOCI).