Angola's ruling party wins general election

Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, flanked by his wife Ana Paula, casts his ballot [AFP]

Angola President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' nearly 33 years in power looks set to be extended after his ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party took 74.46 per cent of votes in national elections, according to provisional results
Julia Ferreira, an electoral commission spokeswoman, said on Saturday that with about 58 per cent of ballots counted, the MPLA had taken nearly three quarters of the ballots.

The provisional turnout was just over 57 percent, the commission said.
Dos Santos had been widely expected to win the election, which was constantly postponed until last year, when the government changed the constitution so that the leader of the party with the most votes becomes president.

Voters on Friday were electing politicians for the 220-seat parliament.
Pedro Verona Pires, chief of the African Union's observer team, described the organisation of the election as "satisfactory" compared to the country's previous election in 2008.
"Everyone agrees that the elections this year were better organised than in 2008," Pires, who is also the former president of Cape Verde, told the AFP news agency.

source: aljazeera