Johannesburg – Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos will not run for the presidency in the August election after 38 years in power, the Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted him as saying on Friday.
Defence Minister Joao Lourenco will be the presidential candidate of the ruling Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), dos Santos said in a speech to the party's central committee.
The 74-year-old, who has ruled the south-western African nation since 1979, had already said he was planning to retire from politics in 2018.
Dos Santos is Africa's longest-serving head of state after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang, who was sworn in less than two months before him.
Critics say Angola's oil wealth has not benefited its poor masses, while dos Santos has run the country like his family business.