By Paul Simao
LUANDA (Reuters) - Angolans voted for an unscheduled secondday in a parliamentary election on Saturday amid charges thepoll had been chaotic and violated the African nation'selectoral law.
The election, Angola's first for 16 years, is largely arace between the ruling MPLA and UNITA, the main oppositionparty. It has been keenly watched because of controversymarring recent African polls and Angola's emergence as a majoroil producer.
Hopes the poll would go smoothly foundered on Friday whenscores of polling stations failed to open on time, preventingmany from voting in Luanda province, home to 21 percent ofAngola's 8.3 million registered voters.
UNITA challenged the legitimacy of the vote in theprovince, pledging to fight a legal battle in theConstitutional Court.
"We have no choice but to file the challenge. Conditionsdid not exist for the election in Luanda (province) yesterdayand they still do not exist today," UNITA spokesman Adalbertoda Costa told Reuters.
The government has denied any electoral wrongdoing.
The second day of voting was generally calm and orderly,and was expected to be completed by 7 pm (1800 GMT). By law theresult must be announced within 15 days of voting, thoughobservers expect it to be released in about a week.
Problems with voter registration lists have been cited asthe main cause of the delays. International observers expressedconcern about the failure to provide the lists after months ofplanning for the vote.
"The law was broken because the electoral registration wasnot distributed," Luisa Morgantini, who is leading a 120-memberEU team, told Reuters. "We cannot say the process was doneaccording to the rules."
DEMAND FOR NEW POLL
UNITA and other opposition parties have demanded that thepoll be held again. UNITA leader Isaias Samakuva described theprocess on Friday as a "mess" and it was not clear whether thevoting extension would mollify his party.
Tensions between UNITA (National Union for the TotalIndependence of Angola) and the MPLA (Popular Movement for theLiberation of Angola) have simmered since the former rebelgroup ended its 27-year war against the state in 2002.
In the run-up to the poll, UNITA accused the MPLA of usingstate funds for its campaign and the state-run media topublicize its cause. It also said its supporters had beenharassed, a charge backed by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
A group of independent Angolan election observers said onSaturday that the voting itself had been largely free ofviolence and irregularities, while adding that it was too earlyto declare the poll legitimate.
The National Platform of Angolan Civil Society forElections (PNASCAE) said it verified six cases of electionviolence and violations of voting procedures since polls openedon Friday.
"We need to see more of the process instead of just a partof it before we can say the election has been transparent andlegitimate," Onesimo Setucula, the Angolan group's nationalcoordinator, told a news conference.
The MPLA, which has governed the country since independencefrom Portugal in 1975, is widely expected to win the election.The party had held 129 of 220 parliamentary seats, with theremainder controlled by UNITA and a handful of smaller parties.
Angola's government has touted the poll as a showcase forits recovery from the civil war and hopes that it will spurfurther foreign investment. Angola rivals Nigeria assub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer.
