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Ruling MPLA leading Angola elections | Ruling MPLA leading Angola elections |
(35 minutes later) | |
Angola's ruling MPLA party has taken a commanding lead in national elections, with almost 75% of the vote, partial results suggest. | Angola's ruling MPLA party has taken a commanding lead in national elections, with almost 75% of the vote, partial results suggest. |
With nearly 60% of votes counted from Friday's poll, the country's main opposition Unita party garnered about 18%, the electoral commission said. | |
If confirmed, the results mean another term for President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, 70, who has ruled since 1979. | |
The polls were the second vote since the civil war ended a decade ago. | The polls were the second vote since the civil war ended a decade ago. |
Analysts had predicted an easy victory for Mr dos Santos' Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which won more than 80% in the last vote. | |
The polls are the first held under a newly adopted constitution, under which the leader of the winning party in the 220-member parliament becomes president. | |
The MPLA has been in power since Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975. | |
The new Casa party - which split from Unita in March - was trailing distant third in the Friday's poll with 4.5% of the vote, the electoral commission said. | |
The Unita party had called for the election to be delayed, expressing concern about a lack of transparency, especially the failure to publish a full electoral roll. | The Unita party had called for the election to be delayed, expressing concern about a lack of transparency, especially the failure to publish a full electoral roll. |
But a BBC correspondent in Luanda says that despite a tense build-up, the election appeared to run relatively smoothly. | But a BBC correspondent in Luanda says that despite a tense build-up, the election appeared to run relatively smoothly. |
The provisional turnout was 57%. | |
Angola - Africa's second leading oil producer - has witnessed an economic boom since the end of the 27-year civil war in 2002, but the opposition says the wealth has only benefited a small elite. | |