By Paul Simao
LUANDA (Reuters) - Preliminary results from Angola'sparliamentary election show the ruling MPLA headed for alandslide victory over its opponents, the African nation'selectoral commission said late on Saturday.
The MPLA, which has ruled the former Portuguese colonysince independence in 1975, received more than 81 percent ofthe vote at the national level, the commission announced at amidnight news conference.
UNITA, the largest opposition party, was winning just over10 percent. The results were based on 35 percent of the votescast in the two-day poll, which UNITA and other oppositionparties have condemned as illegitimate.
The MPLA also was seen crushing the opposition at theprovincial level.
Angola's parliamentary elections use a variation ofproportional representation, with seats allocated based onresults from the national and provincial levels.
"We want to stress that these are provisional results,"Adao de Almeida, a commission spokesman, told reporters at thepress conference in the capital Luanda. He said the next roundof results would be released on Sunday morning.
Officials have 15 days to release the full results.
UNITA CHALLENGE
The MPLA had been widely expected to win the election, butthe current numbers suggested the party was within reach of thecoveted two-thirds majority that would allow it to makesweeping changes to the country's constitution.
The MPLA held 129 of the 220 seats in parliament headinginto the election, with the remainder controlled by UNITA and ahandful of smaller parties.
The results came several hours after polls closed. Votingbegan on Friday but was extended into Saturday because ofdelays and confusion at polling stations in Luanda province,home to 21 percent of Angola's 8.3 million registered voters
UNITA has vowed to challenge the legality of the poll inthe Constitutional 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, whileadmitting that there had been administrative glitches in someareas, particularly around Luanda. MPLA spokesman Norberto dosSantos said UNITA's legal battle was without merit.
A disputed poll could shatter the fragile politicalstability that has existed in the oil-rich nation since the endof a 27-year civil war in 2002.
(Editing by Charles Dick)
