afrol News, 17 September - Angola\'s ruling Popular Movement for Liberation of Angola has won 81.64 percent in 2008 parliamentary elections, electoral commission announced late yesterday.

The main opposition and ex-rebels, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), took just over 10% of the vote, losing more than 50 of its seats and electing 16 deputies to national assembly.

The Angolan electoral commission said turnout was high, with MPLA gaining nearly 82% of the vote and 191 of 210 seats.

The last elections held in 1992 during a lull in the bloody civil conflict were contested by former rebel movement Unita, plunging country back into a war which had only ended six years ago.

However, Unita has already accepted defeat and with exception of a few isolated incidents.

EU observers said vote was an "advance for democracy" but refused to say it was free and fair.

The electoral commission and constitutional court rejected a Unita call for a rerun of vote in Luanda, where voting was chaotic because more than 300 polling stations did not open or lacked materials.

"The court has rejected our claim but what we wanted to do and what we have done is put on record issues we had and that is part of the democratic process of an election," Unita spokesman Jardo Muekalia said.

MPLA, led by President Jose Eduarto Dos Santos, has ruled for the past 33 years. In the last elections in 1992, MPLA won 54 percent to Unita's 34 percent. Unita disputed those results and resumed the civil war. Presidential elections are scheduled for next year.

By staff writer

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