(LUANDA) - Angola's first post-war elections were transparent, without violence or intimidation and voters could make their choices freely, European Union observers told a press conference on Monday.

However, their official report on the poll criticised organisational weaknesses which forced polling into a second day, procedural inconsistencies and an uneven playing field for candidates.

"The elections were transparent (...) people voted freely and we have not seen any violence nor intimidation during the campaign," EU observer mission chief Luisa Morgantini said.

The report said Angola had consolidated its commitment to peace and took "a positive step towards strengthening democracy with a high voter turnout and a calm electoral process that revealed, however, organisational weaknesses, procedural inconsistencies on election day and an uneven playing field for contestants."

Partial results showed a sweeping victory of the ruling left-wing MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), which took 81 percent of the vote, with the main opposition UNITA winning 10 percent.

Voting in the first elections since a 27-year civil war ended in 2002 began on Friday but had to be extended to Saturday because of delays and a lack of election registers in many polling stations.

UNITA (Union for the Total Independence of Angola) has already lodged a complaint with the national electoral commission, and some smaller opposition parties have also protested.

In the run-up to the election, UNITA charged that media coverage was biased in favour of the MPLA.

The EU observer mission agreed with some of their grievances.

"The coverage of the campaign was generally biased in the media (...) the opposition parties were left with a clear disadvantage in access to the media," Morgantini said.

Earlier on Monday one EU observer told AFP he had personally witnessed intimidation and misuse of government resources.

His comments, about the vote in the troubled oil producing enclave of Cabinda, were not in the final EU report, Morgantini said, because the mission was not able to investigate his claims.

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