The lawmakers will in turn elect the President.

Voters in Angola go to the polls today August 31 in the first general election since the coming into force of the country's new constitution. It abolished the direct election of the President, removed the position of Prime Minister and limited presidential tenure to two five-year terms.

The BBC says some 9.7 million voters out of an estimated population of 21 million have been registered. Every Angolan over the age of 18 is entitled to vote. Voters will directly elect 220 members of the National Assembly for a five-year term. Members of the Angolan Diaspora will not be able to vote after the National Electoral Commission (CNE) last month decided to cancel their participation. The process will be overseen by the CNE, but the Constitutional Council will announce the results and is the final authority on electoral matters.

Nine political parties and coalitions are taking part in the poll, but the two main contenders are the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA. The ruling MPLA has dominated Angolan politics since independence from Portugal in 1975, and is widely expect to win. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979, is likely to secure the presidency as the limit on numbers of terms served cannot be imposed retrospectively.

UNITA is a former rebel group that fought the MPLA-led regime from 1975 until the killing of its leader, Jonas Savimbi by government forces in February 2002. It subsequently signed a peace agreement with the government, ending one of Africa's longest-running civil wars. It has since become the main opposition party, but was weakened in March 2012 by the defection of senior officials to create a new party, CASA-CE.