English T he year 2016 was no different from any other year when it comes to the themes that dominated the agenda – but the intensity certainly was a few notches up. Angolans saw in the new year suffering from major hangovers from the previous year – the unfinished business that seems to be the staple, with key developments dragging on, over years before a resolution emerges. Chief among these was the onoff debate over the succession of President José Eduardo dos Santos, the equally on-off trial against journalists doing their job, in specific Rafael Marques, and last but not least the on-off-on-off regulation of the media sector, left hanging in abeyance since the enactment of the Press Law in 2006. Habemus presidentum? Uncertainty over the eventual exit from politics of the 74-year old President Dos Santos continues, despite overwhelming ‘evidence’ that now it is a done deal. With legislative elections scheduled to be held in Angola on August 23 of this year, it would appear that Dos Santos will indeed finally hand over power after almost four decades in power. In terms of the new constitution of 2010, the country ceased to have presidential elections, opting for the party-list proportional representation system, with the number one candidate of the winning party automatically becoming president. The change offered a surgical solution to the irksome debate around Dos Santos’s tenure, limited to two fiveyear terms under the 1975 and 1992 constitutions, both of which failed to provide a clear answer on when Dos Santos’s presidency actually started, 12 So This is Democracy? 2016 given that the second round of presidential elections against UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi never took place. Likewise, there was no clarity on whether or not Dos Santos had served his two terms, as the country was in and out of war, making it impossible to hold elections. There is good reason for the uncertainty to persist. News of Dos Santos’s departure have over the years been emblazoned on front-pages on a number of occasions. In 2016, these pencilled a see-saw of contradicting developments, starting with an announcement in March that Dos Santos was grooming one of his children to take over the reins. The news gained momentum when also in March, it was announced that Dos Santos would leave office in 2018. However, this puzzled analysts, as elections were scheduled for 2017, which begged the question of how Dos Santos would stay on as president and then hand over to a stand-in candidate. In June Dos Santos announced that he was contesting the July elections for the presidency of the MPLA. With no other contender, Dos Santos was unanimously elected, being endorsed by the party in August. The debate culminated with the news in December that a successor to President Dos Santos had been identified in the person of João Lourenço. However, at no point was it made clear that Dos Santos was out of the picture, with the final list still subject to adjustments as it moved along a number of steps in the approval process in the party’s political bureau and central committee between January and February of 2017. For much of the recent past, Deputy President Manuel Vicente had been widely expected to fill Dos Santos’s shoes when the time came, but the once pivotal party stalwart has since not only been overshadowed, but also implicated in investigations in Portugal into shady dealings involving