Polls close after extra day of Angola voting

07 September 2008 0357 hrs (SST) 1957 hrs (GMT)

LUANDA - Polls closed at 7 pm (1800 GMT) in Angola on Saturday after initial chaos led to an extra day of voting in the nation's first post-war election, an electoral commission official told AFP.

"At this moment everything is closed," said Ado de Almeida of Angola's CNE electoral commission.

Angola's first election since the end of a devastating 27-year civil war went into overtime after a chaotic start on Friday led the opposition to demand a fresh vote.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' governing MPLA party is widely expected to emerge the winner once all ballots are counted, maintaining its grip on what has become Africa's premier oil-producing nation.

Late Friday the electoral commission announced that voting in Luanda, where most of Friday's problems occurred, would be extended, with 320 of the capital's 2,585 polling stations reopening.

- AFP /ls