Angolan President set for win

The ruling party of Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos looked to be headed for an easy parliamentary election win yesterday.

A multi-million-pound campaign by the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has been coordinated by the team behind President Dilma Rousseff's victory in Brazil last year.

The main opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), had called for the election to be delayed, citing irregularities.

The Open Society Institute for Southern Africa and Human Rights Watch criticised the authorities for stifling free speech in the run-up to the poll but the EU decided not to send election observers.

Mr Dos Santos, 70, is Africa's second longest-serving president. He has been in power for 33 years and has never faced a direct presidential election.