Angola used the same electoral system to elect the Assembleia Nacional (National Assembly) in 1992, 2008, and 2012. Voters cast a single ballot for a party list, which is used twice to allocate seats at both the provincial and national levels. Each of the 18 provinces elects 5 deputies–for a total of 90–via the d’Hondt method of proportional representation. Two deputies are also elected by expatriate Angolans by the same method but Angola was unable to organize their election in 1992. An additional 130 deputies are elected via the largest remainder method of proportional representation with a Hare quota. Candidates are allocated seats at both the provincial and national level off of closed party lists.

The following is a map of Angola’s 18 provinces, which also serve as constituencies:

Source: Embassy of Angola.

Provincial Allocation Example

Provincial seats are allocated within constituencies off of closed party lists by the d’Hondt method of proportional representation. The d’Hondt quota for each party equals the number of votes received divided by the number of seats held plus 1 with the quota recalculated each time it gains a seat. Seats are awarded in descending order of quotas until all seats have been distributed.

The 2012 allocation of the 5 seats in Huambo Province helps illustrate the distribution process for the provincial mandates. The table below shows the votes received and the first 4 d’Hondt quotas for all parties that received votes. The first d’Hondt quota equals the number of votes and appears in the column labeled “1.” The 5 highest d’Hondt quotas, which gained their parties seats, are shaded in green.

The first 2 seats went to MPLA because its first 2 d’Hondt quotas were larger than the first d’Hondt quota, or the total number of votes, for all other parties. (After MPLA gained its first seat, the quota was recalculated with the divisor increased to 2 and then to 3 after it won its second seat.) The third seat was won by UNITA because its first quota was larger than MPLA’s third quota or the first quota for any other party. MPLA won the fourth along with the final and fifth seat because its third and dourth d’Hondt quotas were higher than the second quota for MPLA or the first quota for any other party.

List are closed so seats went to the first 4 candidates on the MPLA list and the top candidate on the UNITA list.

National Allocation Example

The 2012 allocation of the 130 national seats similarly helps to demonstrate the distribution for the national seats. The Hare quota is calculated by dividing the total number of votes (5,756,004) by the number of seats (130) and equals 44,277. The fourth column in the table below shows the number of Hare quotas–votes divided by the Hare quota–gained by each party. Seats are awarded initially for full multiples of the Hare quota (i.e. the portion to the left of the decimal point), shown in the fifth column.

As 127 of the 130 seats were distributed by this method, 3 remain to be given out to parties with the largest remainder of votes (i.e. the portion to the right of the decimal point in the Hare quota for each party). The first remainder seat went to CASA-CE as it has 0.81 of Hare quota unused in the first allocation. FNLA won the second remainder seat with 0.47 of a Hare quota and MPLA won the last seat for 0.40 of a Hare quota. The final column in the table shows the total number of seats earned in the national allocation.

Lists are closed so were awarded in order off of the appropriate party list.