Angola: General elections underway

People in Angola are voting for a new president and parliament, in national elections. It has been slightly more than a decade since the oil-rich country’s 27-year civil war ended.

Polls were to open at 7 a.m. (0200 EST) – earlier, Former rebel group UNITA, now the main opposition party, had called for a delay, alleging irregularities.

Victory for the ruling party, – the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola , or MPLA, would give the incumbent Angola President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, another five-year term.

A leading oil producer, Angola has witnessed an economic boom since April 2002, after the end of the civil war that had ravaged the country after independence from Portugal in 1975.

Angola is now Africa’s third largest economy and has dominated the list of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Some 9.7 million voters are registered to elect 220 legislators. The No.1 candidate of party that wins the majority becomes president.

Dos Santos’ party holds 191 national assembly seats after it won 2008 elections in a landslide. UNITA, the biggest opposition party, won 10 percent of votes and 16 seats. UNITA is expected to pick up a few more votes from people who complain about a lack of democracy and an unequal spread of wealth.

The Habari Network Monitoring Team with files from The Associated Press