Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is expected to give the final go-ahead next week for parliamentary elections for the first time in 16 years, according to local media.
State-owned daily Jornal de Angolasaid Mr dos Santos summoned the Republican Council, comprised of advisers and members of the opposition party, for a meeting on Tuesday to discuss holding parliamentary elections in the oil-rich African nation this year.
Last year he announced parliamentary polls would take place September 5th-6th. Angolan law requires the president confirm these dates 90 days before the election is held. A presidential ballot will follow in 2009.
"The time has come boss," weekly newspaper A Capitalsaid on its front page, alluding to the president's first electoral test since an aborted national election in 1992 led to the return of a civil war that killed more than one million people.
The end of the civil war in 2002 triggered an investment bonanza in sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest oil producer and paved the way for massive state and private infrastructure projects to rebuild the country's roads, bridges and ailing communications.
Since then the date of the ballot has repeatedly been delayed, in part due to the lack of registered voters in a country where many still lack proper identification documents.
The ruling MPLA party is widely expected to retain its majority in parliament. Mr dos Santos who is expected to run for president next year, by which time he will have led Angola for 30 years.