The party has received 64.57% of the vote in the first batch of results, the Angolan electoral commission said.

The main opposition Unita party, which has reportedly received 24.04% of the vote, disputes the commission’s count.

This week’s vote marks the end of nearly four decades in power for President José Eduardo Dos Santos.

The Angolan electoral commission said provisional results from Wednesday’s election show the governing MPLA party in the lead with nearly two-thirds of the votes counted so far.

The count, which was announced on Thursday, represents over 70% of the total vote, the commission said.

If the lead is confirmed and the MPLA party wins, the presidency would then pass to former Defence Minister João Lourenço, who has been anointed as the successor of Mr Dos Santos.

However Mr Dos Santos, whose 38-year reign makes him the world’s second-longest serving president, will remain in control of the MPLA party.

Meanwhile, the opposition Unita party said it had carried out its own count and that its results were very different from those announced by the commission.

The Unita party’s Isias Samakuva is the main challenger to Mr Lourenço.

Under Angola’s voting system, people were asked to choose both the candidate and party in the same election.

Voting in Angola’s parliamentary election ends on Saturday 26 August due to delays in getting the ballot papers to more than a dozen polling stations in remote areas.

The MPLA party has been the only party in power since Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975.

Critics have accused Mr Dos Santos’s government of corruption and repression, alleging that the country’s oil wealth has not spread beyond the ruling elite.

After the war, Angola was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world because of its huge oil reserves.

But when global oil prices dropped two years ago, it affected the whole economy.

While Mr Dos Santos is standing down as president, his children still hold several key positions of authority.

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Earlier this month, she lost her presidential immunity and was dismissed from her post when the constitutional court upheld a decision by parliament to impeach her.

Ms Park is accused of allowing her close friend Choi Soon-sil to allegedly extort money from big firms.

Ms Park has denied the allegations.

The former president apologised to the public last week, before being questioning by authorities for 14 hours.

“The case is very grave as the suspect has demonstrated acts of abuse of power by making companies give money and infringing on the freedom of corporate management by using powerful position and authority as president,” prosecutors said in a statement on Monday.

The prosecutors argue that evidence like computer hard drives might be destroyed if Ms Park is not arrested, the BBC’s Stephen Evans in Seoul says.

Ms Choi has been charged with bribery and corruption and is already on trial.

Why did Park lose her job?

At the heart of the drama lies the close friendship between Ms Park and Ms Choi.

Ms Choi is accused of using her presidential connections to pressure companies to give millions of dollars in donations to non-profit foundations she controlled.

The acting head of electronics conglomerate Samsung, Lee Jae-yong, was arrested for his role in the scandal.

Ms Park, 65, is alleged to have been personally involved in this, and to have given Ms Choi unacceptable levels of access to official documents.

Parliament voted to impeach Ms Park in December.

On 10 March, the constitutional court ruled that Ms Park’s actions “seriously impaired the spirit of… democracy and the rule of law”.

Judges said she had broken the law by allowing Ms Choi to meddle in state affairs, and had breached guidelines on official secrets by leaking numerous documents.

Ms Park had “concealed completely Choi’s meddling in state affairs and denied it whenever suspicions over the act emerged and even criticised those who raised the suspicions,” the ruling said.

What happens now?

The Seoul Central District Court will now determine whether there is grounds to issue the arrest warrant for Ms Park.

If it is issued, prosecutors will have up to 20 days to continue investigations and file charges against her, reports Reuters news agency.

As president she had enjoyed immunity and repeatedly refused to take part in questioning.

But now she could face several charges, including abuse of power, coercion, bribery and leaking government secrets.

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Source: BBC

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