|
Angola Local Administration
As of late 1988, Angola was divided into eighteen
provinces
(províncias) and 161 districts (municípios)
(see
fig. 1). Districts were further subdivided into quarters or
communes
(comunas), villages (povoações), and
neighborhoods
(bairros). Administration at each level was the
responsibility of a commissioner, who was appointed by the
president at the provincial, district, and commune levels
and
elected at the village and neighborhood levels. The
eighteen
provincial commissioners were ex-officio members of the
executive
branch of the national government. The supreme organ of
state power
was the national People's Assembly. Provincial people's
assemblies
comprised between fifty-five and eighty-five delegates,
charged
with implementing MPLA-PT directives. People's assemblies
were also
envisioned, but not yet operational in late 1988, at each
subnational level of administration.
In 1983 the president created a system of regional
military
councils to oversee a range of local concerns with
security
implications. High-ranking military officers, reporting
directly to
the president, headed these councils. Their authority
superseded
that of other provincial administrators and allowed them
to impose
a state of martial law within areas threatened by
insurgency. The
boundaries of military regions and the provinces did not
coincide
exactly. Until 1988 ten regional military councils were in
operation. In early 1988, however, the Ministry of
Defense, citing
this structure as inadequate, announced the formation of
four
fronts
(see Constitutional and Political Context
, ch. 5).
Data as of February 1989
|
