Angolan legislative election, 1986

Parliamentary elections were held in Angola on 9 December 1986. They had been scheduled for 1983, but were postponed due to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola's (UNITA) military gains in the civil war. The elections were the second elections conducted in the nation after in got independence from Portugal in 1975 and after the 1980 elections. During the period of 1975 to 1980, a civil war was fought between three parties, namely, People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the disturbance continued to the 90s.

The Unicameral Parliament of Angola was scheduled to be constituted with the 289 elected members for a period of three years after the elections. All Angolan citizens with 18 years of age were eligible to cast their vote. The representatives of the provincial assemblies formed a college and they elected the representatives of the House of Parliament.

Elections were planned to be held in 1983, but was postponed to three years for political disturbances and finally was held on 9 November 1986 for electoral colleges for choosing the electorates of the legislature. At the time, the country was a one-party state, with the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Party of Labour (MPLA-PT) as the sole legal party. As a result, most candidates were members of the party, and two-thirds were re-nominated from 1980 elections. The elected assemblies took oath on 30 January 1987 and José Eduardo dos Santos took oath as the second elected President of Angola. MPLA won 173 out of the 289 seats, while there were 117 independent winners and one seat remained vacant.

Angola was a colony of Portugal for more than 400 years from the 15th century. The demand for independence in Angola picked up momentum during the early 1950s. The Portuguese régime, refused to accede to the demands for independence, provoking an armed conflict that started in 1961 when freedom fighters attacked both white and black civilians in cross-border operations in northeastern Angola, which was called the Colonial War. The principal protagonists included the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), founded in 1956, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), which appeared in 1961, and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), founded in 1966. After many years of conflict that weakened all of the insurgent parties, Angola gained its independence on 11 November 1975, after the 1974 coup d'état in Lisbon, Portugal, which overthrew the Portuguese régime headed by Marcelo Caetano.

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