UNITA says Angolans tired of waiting for elections

* UNITA party says Angolans tired of waiting for elections

* Fears Angolans will protest on the streets

* Expects presidential vote to take place in 2012

By Henrique Almeida

LUANDA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Angolans are tired of waiting for presidential elections and may soon take to the streets in protest against delays, the head of the main opposition UNITA party said on Thursday.

Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power for 30 years, has pushed back a presidential poll at least three times since the end of Angola's civil war in 2002. He announced a vote for 2009 which is now expected to be delayed until 2012.

"I think Angolans will one day have the need to say ' enough'," Isaias Samakuva, whose UNITA party fought a brutal 27-year civil war against the ruling MPLA party that ended in 2002, told reporters.

"UNITA has drawn a red line and when that line is stepped on ... Angolans will be ready to carry out peaceful actions which can help make the government understand them."

Asked if such actions included street protests, Samakuva replied: "Yes."

Dos Santos has said that a presidential vote should only take place after parliament approves a new constitution that will decide how the president is elected. The new constitution is expected to be ready in the second half of 2010.

But his party proposed earlier this month that, in the new charter, the president and parliament should be elected in a single election, raising fears the vote will occur only when Angola's parliamentary mandate runs out in 2012.

Asked if he feared elections would only be held in 2012, Samakuva replied: "I don't fear it, I think it's clear."

In the current constitution the president and parliament are elected through two separate polls.

Angola rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer and currently chairs the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Samakuva accused the president of being more concerned about gaining international prestige than providing for the Angolan people.

"There are those who are constantly saying that Angola is on the rise, I don't share that line of thought," he said. "For me, the construction of more condominiums when we can't even power these building with energy and water, is not rising."

Dos Santos, known as "the kid" when he came to power at the age of 37, is now Africa's second-longest serving leader after Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. (Reporting by Henrique Almeida; Editing by Giles Elgood)