Voting ends in Angolan election

By Paul Simao

LUANDA (Reuters) - Angolans voted for an unscheduled second day on Saturday in a parliamentary election which opposition parties said was illegitimate and should be held again.

The African nation's electoral commission said voting, hit by widespread delays and confusion at polling stations on Friday, had ended after high turnout on the second day.

"All polling stations in the country have closed," Caetano de Sousa, the head of the National Electoral Commission, said in a news conference in Luanda.

The dispute over the election threatens to shatter the fragile political stability that has existed in the oil-rich nation since the end of a 27-year civil war in 2002.

The ruling MPLA is expected to win the vote, which has been keenly watched because of Angola's emergence as a major oil producer and the newest member of OPEC. Officials have 15 days to release results.

On Friday, scores of polling stations failed to open on time, preventing many from voting in Luanda province, home to 21 percent of Angola's 8.3 million registered voters.

UNITA, the largest opposition party, challenged the legitimacy of the vote in the province, pledging to fight a legal battle in the Constitutional Court.

"We have no choice but to file the challenge. Conditions did not exist for the election in Luanda yesterday and they still do not exist today," UNITA spokesman Adalberto da Costa said.

The government has denied any electoral wrongdoing, while admitting that there had been administrative glitches in some areas, particularly around the capital Luanda.

OBSERVERS SPLIT

Problems with voter registration lists have been cited as the main cause of the delays on Friday.

"The law was broken because the electoral registration was not distributed," Luisa Morgantini, who is leading a 120-member EU team, told Reuters. "We cannot say the process was done according to the rules."

Morgantini, after meeting Angolan election officials, later said she was pleased with their efforts and impressed by the way in which Angolans had cast their votes.

An observer mission from the Southern African Development Community, a 15-nation group that includes Angola, said on Saturday the election was credible, free and transparent, according to Angola's state-run Angop news agency.

But UNITA leader Isaias Samakuva has described the poll as a "mess" and showed no signs of toning down his criticism.