Angola

The Constitution of The Republic of Angola, which entered into effect on February 5th, 2010, establishes that there are three sovereign bodies, namely, the President of the Republic (PR), the National Assembly and the Courts.

The new Constitution reaffirms and consecrates among its structuring principles the pluralist and representative democracy, the unitary state, the valuation of the work and the respect for the human dignity, the freedom of enterprise and entrepreneurship, the social justice, the participation of the citizens and the primacy of the Law.

In the previous Constitution (Constitutional Law), the President of the Republic was a sovereign body, plus three others, which were the Government, the Courts and the National Assembly. With this new Constitution, the country, no longer has a sovereign body called, Government, since the duties of the government, as an executive body, are now assigned to the President of the Republic.

According to the established New Constitution, the Cabinet is an auxiliary body to the President of the Republic, because all issues of fundamental concern are first heard by its members, prior to the President´s approval.

The Cabinet, continues to be a very important body, although it doesn´t have deliberative power; therefore, it only works merely as a consulting body.

The national Assembly, no longer has the ability to convoke members of the government, in order to provide information or to be heard about certain issues, as it happened before the former Constitution was ceased.

The Parliament has an oversight duty, different from the one that it previously carried out, taking into account that the current Constitution, delivers the legislative function to the Parliament, and the executive, to operate, needs the Laws, which are approved by the National Assembly.

It is within the scope of its legislative function, that the Parliament can exert a very strong supervisory action on the executive.