Delays mar historic Angolan election

Delays marred Angola's first vote in 16 years on Friday, a parliamentary election in which the ruling party is expected to extend its hold of more than three decades in the oil-rich African nation.

Long queues formed in the capital Luanda, considered a stronghold of the governing MPLA, hours before the polls opened at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT). But voters and election observers complained of disorganisation.

Scores of polling stations failed to open on time, while others remained closed several hours after voting began.

"This is a mess," said Isaias Samakuva, leader of UNITA, the former rebel group that is Angola's largest opposition party. Samakuva has accused the MPLA of having an unfair financial and media advantage in the run-up to the election.

He urged officials to fix the voting glitches quickly.

Angola wants the election to set an example after flawed ballots elsewhere in Africa and to demonstrate its recovery from decades of civil war that ended in 2002.

Angola is Africa's second-biggest oil producer, but the majority of its population still lives in poverty.

"This is a day of hope. Things will change because we have suffered a lot to live in peace," Esperanca da Gloria, a 65-year-old retired nurse, said while waiting to vote near the presidential palace in Luanda.

The poll is the first since 1992 and is seen largely as a race between the MPLA and UNITA. Official results are not expected for at least a week. An estimated 8.3 million people are registered to vote.

Luisa Morgantini, head of the European Union's election observer mission in Angola, said it was possible that voting would have to be extended as a result of the problems.

"In Luanda it is very problematic, but in the countryside things are better," Morgantini said.

The head of Angola's electoral commission, Caetano de Sousa, told reporters that some polling stations had experienced problems with voter registration lists and he pledged that all voters would have a chance to cast their ballots.

"This is not a disaster of any kind," he said.

MPLA VS UNITA

Angola's last election ended in disaster in 1992 when UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi withdrew from the second round of a presidential poll after accusing MPLA leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos of cheating his way to victory.

Savimbi then led his supporters back into the bush where the rebel group resumed a civil war against the government. An estimated half a million people died in the 27-year conflict, which ended after Savimbi was killed in an ambush in 2002.

Dos Santos, Angola's president, flashed a victory sign as he voted at a Luanda polling station.

"It's an historic moment for Angola and the most important thing is that Angola comes out of this big contest the winner," Dos Santos said. "We can provide a great example to the world."

His Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which took power after independence from Portugal in 1975, is confident it will beat a fragmented and underfunded opposition.

Its supporters openly boast the party will boost its share of the 220-seat parliament, possibly winning the two-thirds majority needed to make sweeping changes to the constitution.

The MPLA held 129 seats going into the election, with the remainder mostly controlled by UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). There are 12 other small opposition parties contesting the election.

Despite accusations he has turned a blind eye to corruption and glaring social ills, Dos Santos - in power since 1979 - hopes voters will give the government credit for the country's economic boom.

Oil production has more than doubled since the end of the war to about two million barrels per day, helping fuel double-digit economic growth. Angola's gross domestic product grew more than 24 percent in 2007.

The country is also enjoying increasing clout on the world stage as the newest member of OPEC and an emerging regional heavyweight in Africa. Angola is the biggest oil exporter to China and has won billions of dollars in Chinese investment.

UNITA is pinning its hopes on discontent over the government's failure to dent poverty and high unemployment.

Two-thirds of Angolans live on $2 a day and at least 40 percent of the workforce is unemployed.

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