Angola’s ruling party looks likely to win an overwhelming victory in the country’s first peacetime elections, with partial results on Monday suggesting that it is close to the two-thirds parliamentary majority necessary to change the constitution.

The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which has governed the country since independence from Portugal in 1975, had nearly 82 per cent of the vote after three-quarters of ballots had been counted. Unita, the former guerrilla movement and largest opposition party, trailed with only 10.5 per cent of the vote, according to Angola’s electoral commission.