Angolans vote Friday in their first peacetime parliamentary elections for 16 years, with the ruling leftwing MPLA expected to keep a firm grip on power in the country.

The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola is also confident that Angolans would vote to extend the party's 33 years of uninterrupted rule.

The main rival of MPLA is the opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) party, which hopes discontent over the government's failure to address economic issues will boost its campaign.

The elections are an important move to consolidate democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, after the troubles in Kenya and Zimbabwe this year, analysts say.

Angola's last election in 1992 sparked the second phase of the country's 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002 and claimed 500,000 lives.

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