Angola ruling party set for big win in disputed poll

By Paul Simao

LUANDA (Reuters) - The leader of Angola's largest opposition party said on Sunday he was contesting the results of the country's parliamentary election, which showed the ruling party headed for a landslide victory.

The dispute over the poll, the first to be held in 16 years, threatens to shatter the fragile political stability that has existed since the end of Angola's civil war in 2002 and could dent the oil-rich nation's standing among foreign investors.

The international community has been watching the vote closely after tarnished elections in Zimbabwe and Kenya, hoping that the former Portuguese colony would defy its own history and emerge from the election with political consensus.

UNITA leader Isaias Samakuva, however, said the two-day vote had been badly flawed, with polling stations opening late or not at all and officials failing to properly confirm the identify of voters on registration lists. He vowed to contest the results.

"The facts suggest that the final results of this election might not rigorously reflect the wishes expressed in the ballot box by the Angolan people," Samakuva told a news conference at his party's office in the capital Luanda.

When asked if he was challenging the validity of the poll, Samakuva said: "That's right." UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) has demanded a re-vote and vowed to take its battle to the Constitutional Court.

International monitors appear split over whether to give the Angolan election a quick and clean bill of health.

Observers from the Southern African Development Community, a 15-nation regional body that includes Angola, have said the poll was credible, transparent and free. But a European Union mission has raised concerns about irregularities.

The EU team is expected to deliver its report on Monday.

Voting began on Friday but was extended into Saturday because of delays and confusion at polling stations in Luanda province, home to 21 percent of Angola's 8.3 million voters.

The government has denied any electoral wrongdoing, while admitting there had been administrative glitches in some areas.

MPLA SURGE

Preliminary results, based on slightly more than two-thirds of the vote, show the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) with about 82 percent of the national vote versus 10.5 percent for UNITA and leading in all 18 provinces.

Officials have 15 days to release the final results, but it is expected that they will be announced this week.

The numbers, if they hold, represent a stunning collapse in support for the opposition and an overwhelming mandate for the ruling party, in power since independence from Portugal in 1975.