(LUANDA) - The head of the European Union observer mission in Angola on Friday called the organisation of the landmark national election a "disaster".

"What we have seen in the three polling stations we have visited in Luanda, is a disaster. They have not started voting yet. They did not prepare," EU observer mission chief Luisa Morgantini said.

The head of Angola's electoral commission acknowledged there were problems with the vote but promised action had been taken.

Morgantini said many polling stations did not have voter lists. "It's a total mess," she said, while adding that EU observers in the rest of the country had not reported similar problems.

"It seems that the main problem is Luanda," she said.

Mussa Idriss Ndele from a pan-African parliamentary observer mission also pointed to a slow start in the capital but told AFP that the vote started on time in other parts of the country.

Just over a fifth of the country's eight million voters are registered in Luanda.

Despite reports of chaos, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who heads the ruling leftwing Popular Movement for the Total Liberation of Angola (MPLA), on Friday said the historic vote was "going well".

"For the moment everything is going well," Dos Santos told state television TPA, praising the "good atmosphere".

"There is tolerance, a respect for the opinions of others and a brotherly mood," he said. "If things continue like this (...) I think we will give a great example to the world."

The leader of the opposition UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) Isaias Samakuva echoed the worries of the international observers.

"Some of our delegates have received false credentials, or were given wrong addresses of non-existent polling stations. There is a lot of confusion mainly here in Luanda," Samakuva told journalists.

"We will continue to follow this process and see how it will end up," he said. "The situation is unacceptable (...) If things continue to be like this the whole day, the process will be stained."

"Not all polling stations are working fully, in some provinces, particularly in Luanda there are some deficiencies," said commission president Caetano Sousa at a press conference in the capital.

"We are undertaking a set of exceptional measures and in short time we will be able to normalize the situation so that all polling stations operate and all voters be able to exercise their rights."

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