LUANDA, Angola (AP) — European Union observers said Angola's first election in 16 years was poorly organized, but praised the calm and enthusiasm with which voters embraced a step toward democracy after decades of civil war.

At a news conference Monday, as election officials continued to count the votes from the parliamentary elections held Friday and Saturday, chief EU observer Luisa Morgantini declined to say whether the elections were free and fair. She said such terms were ""too vague.""
Morgantini released an initial report detailing problems including absent election officials and polling stations that lacked ballots. But the report said the campaign was relatively peaceful and turnout was high.
Observers from the Pan-African Parliament gave the elections a lukewarm endorsement but expressed concern the ruling party had misused the media.
In a statement in Brussels, Belgium, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said that despite its problems, the vote in a country that has known only six years of peace after decades of civil war was significant.
With more than 5 million votes counted Monday afternoon, election officials said the ruling party had more than 80 percent. In second place was the former rebel group UNITA, with about 10 percent.
UNITA had resorted to violence after losing the last vote in 1992. This time, party leader Isaias Samakuva called a late-night news conference Monday to say he would accept the results.
Samakuva called on the ruling party to ""govern in the interest of all Angolans.""
President Eduardo dos Santos's party has dominated politics since independence from Portugal in 1975. His Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, went into the election with 125 of parliament's 220 seats. UNITA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, had had 70.
The last time Angola held elections was in 1992 during a break in decades of civil war, which ended in 2002, when the army killed the UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.
Dos Santos has been in power since 1979. His once-Marxist MPLA is accused by international human rights groups of corruption and mismanagement.
Oil output is projected to surpass 2 million barrels a day next year and increase by 90 percent from 2005 levels by 2010, according to conservative estimates by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF says that would double government revenues, even if oil prices fall.