By Paul Simao
LUANDA (Reuters) - Angolans voted for an unscheduled secondday on Saturday in a parliamentary election which oppositionparties said was illegitimate and should be held again.
The African nation's electoral commission said voting, hitby widespread delays and confusion at polling stations onFriday, had ended after high turnout on the second day.
"All polling stations in the country have closed," Caetanode Sousa, the head of the National Electoral Commission, saidin a news conference in Luanda.
The dispute over the election threatens to shatter thefragile political stability that has existed in the oil-richnation since the end of a 27-year civil war in 2002.
The ruling MPLA is expected to win the vote, which has beenkeenly watched because of Angola's emergence as a major oilproducer and the newest member of OPEC. Officials have 15 daysto release results.
On Friday, scores of polling stations failed to open ontime, preventing many from voting in Luanda province, home to21 percent of Angola's 8.3 million registered voters.
UNITA, the largest opposition party, challenged thelegitimacy of the vote in the province, pledging to fight alegal battle in the Constitutional Court.
"We have no choice but to file the challenge. Conditionsdid not exist for the election in Luanda yesterday and theystill do not exist today," UNITA spokesman Adalberto da Costasaid.
The government has denied any electoral wrongdoing, whileadmitting that there had been administrative glitches in someareas, particularly around the capital Luanda.
OBSERVERS SPLIT
Problems with voter registration lists have been cited asthe main cause of the delays on Friday.
"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."
Morgantini, after meeting Angolan election officials, latersaid she was pleased with their efforts and impressed by theway in which Angolans had cast their votes.
An observer mission from the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity, a 15-nation group that includes Angola, said onSaturday 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 asa "mess" and showed no signs of toning down his criticism.
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 war against the state six years ago.
In the run-up to the poll, UNITA accused the MPLA of usingstate funds for its campaign and the state-run media topublicise its cause. It also said its supporters had beenharassed, a charge backed by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
Independent Angolan election observers said on Saturdaythat the voting was largely free of violence andirregularities, but said it was too early to declare the polllegitimate.
The MPLA, which has governed the country since independencefrom Portugal in 1975, held 129 of 220 parliamentary seatsgoing into the poll, with the remainder controlled by UNITA anda 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.
(Editing by Dominic Evans)
