Angola's president set for second term as party leads vote

Angola's Joao Lourenco was set to remain president, as his party maintained its lead in the country's most hotly contested election in its democratic history, with nearly all the votes counted.

Results published by the country's electoral commission gave the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) 51.07 percent of the vote with more than 97 percent of ballots tallied. 

This is significantly lower than its previous performance where it garnered 61 percent.

The main opposition group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Adalberto Costa Junior, stood at 44.05 percent -- a huge jump from 26.67 percent in the 2017 election.

The leader of the winning party automatically ascends to the presidency in the oil-rich former Portuguese colony. 

A senior member of the opposition party and former rebel movement told a news conference that the official results did not tally with their own parallel count.

"We hope there can be common sense, we are not encouraging a rebellion, the process is not over, we must remain calm," said Anastacio Ruben Sicato.

The ruling party parliamentary share of seats dropped to 124 from 150 in the last election, while UNITA's nearly doubled to 90 from 51 of the 220 parliamentary seats up for grabs.