Angolans vote for first time in 16 years

Turnout was enthusiastic, but some polling stations were still closed at 10am, three hours after they were supposed to have opened.

More than eight million Angolans are registered to vote and Angola has invited 1,200 foreign observers from 17 international organisations and 10 countries to follow up the elections. Results are expected to be announced next week.

Angola's last election ended in disaster in 1992 when opposition UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi withdrew from the second round of a presidential poll after accusing Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA) leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos of cheating.

Mr Savimbi then resumed a civil war which only ended in 2002, when he was killed in an ambush. Mr dos Santos said: "We have now started a new political era, a new way of using politics to obtain our goals."

His social democratic Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA) is optimistic that voters will give the government credit for presiding over the country's oil-driven economic boom. But international human rights groups accuse the MPLA of corruption and mismanagement.

Angola earned an estimated record $41 billion (£23bn) in oil exports last year, up from $30 billion (£17bn) in 2006, but almost 70 per cent of its population still lives on less than $2 (£1.10) a day.

This year Angola overtook Saudi Arabia as China's leading source of crude oil.