Luanda — The Council of the Republic, that met on Wednesday under the chairmanship of president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, recommended by unanimity that the legislative election should take place in 2008 and the presidential poll in the following year.

It was recommended by "unanimity that the legislative election should take place in 2008, between May and August and the presidential poll should be held in the following year (2009), in the same period", announced the meeting's spokesperson, Augusto Carneiro.

The justification of this timeframe, according to Augusto Carneiro, who is the General Attorney of the Republic, is due to the fact that until next June it will not be fulfilled all the phases of the voters' registration, namely the approval of its results by the National Electoral Commission, the period of claim and appeals and the need for a new complementary registration and its update.

The Council of the Republic considered satisfactory the fulfilment of the first phase of the voters' registration, taking into account the numbers obtained and the quality of the registrations, although there have been noticed some organisational, material and technical constraints.

In this 24th meeting of the President of the Republic's consulting organ was delivered an information about the situation of the electoral registration by the minister of Territorial Administration, Virgilio de Fontes Pereira.

In the beginning of the session, the members observed a minute of silence in memory of former counsellor, Mfulumpinga Lando Victor, who died after the last meeting of the Council of the Republic, held on July 02, 2004.

The Council of the Republic comprises the Parliament speaker, the Prime Minister, the General Attorney of the Republic, leaders of political parties represented in the Parliament and some personalities of the civil society expressly invited by the Head of state.