An Angolan election official signals a vote for the MPLA on a ballot paper [AFP]

Preliminary results showed the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which has ruled Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975, received more than 81 per cent of the vote at the national level, the electoral commission said on Saturday.

Early results showed the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), the southern African nation's largest opposition party, took just over 10 per cent. The results were based on 35 per cent of the votes cast in the two-day poll.

The MPLA was also seen crushing the opposition at the provincial level.

Angola's parliamentary election uses a variation of proportional representation, with seats allocated based on results from the national and provincial levels.

"We want to stress that these are provisional results," Adao de Almeida, a commission spokesman, told a news conference in the capital Luanda.

He said the next round of results would be released on Sunday morning.

Polling problems

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

Unita has vowed to challenge the legality of the poll in the Constitutional Court.

A disputed poll could shatter the fragile political stability that has existed since the end of a 27-year civil war in 2002.

"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.

Unita and other opposition parties say the vote should be held again.

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

MPLA spokesman Norberto dos Santos said Unita's legal battle was without merit.

Officials have 15 days to announce the full results of an election which has been keenly watched because of Angola's emergence as a major oil producer and the newest member of Opec.

Constitutional change

The MPLA had been widely expected to win the election, but the partial results suggested the party was within reach of the coveted two-thirds majority that would allow it to make sweeping changes to the country's constitution.

The MPLA held 129 of the 220 seats in parliament heading into the election, with the remainder controlled by Unita and a handful of smaller parties.

Unita's Samakuva said the poll was a 'mess' [AFP]

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, said.

"We cannot say the process was done according to the rules," he said.

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 (Sadc), 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 Isaias Samakuva, Unita's leader, has described the poll as a "mess" and showed no signs of toning down his criticism.

Tensions between Unita and the MPLA have simmered since the opposition group ended its war against the state six years ago.

In the run-up to the poll, Unita accused the MPLA of using state funds for its campaign and the state-run media to publicise its cause.

It also said its supporters had been harassed, a charge backed by US-based Human Rights Watch.

Independent Angolan election observers said on Saturday that the voting was largely free of violence and irregularities, but that it was too early to declare the poll legitimate.

Angola's government has touted the poll as a showcase for its recovery from the civil war and hopes that it will spur further foreign investment.

Angola rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer.

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