Angolans started paying their final respect to former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Saturday as the veteran strongman's historically dominant party emerged from its worst electoral result.

Dos Santos, who ruled Angola with an iron fist for 38 years, died on July 8 at a hospital in Spain after suffering a cardiac arrest.

His tenure saw members of his family plunder the nation's oil riches while most Angolans remained mired in poverty.

He will be buried at a state funeral on Sunday, on what would have been his 80th birthday.

The funeral is set to be attended by about a dozen foreign leaders, including the presidents of Portugal, Mozambique and South Africa.

A brown casket carrying dos Santos's body and draped with the Angolan flag made the solemn trip through the streets to the city's central Praca da Republica plaza.

Most people went about their daily lives while some watched the cortege slowly drive past.

The coffin will lie in state in a tent for the public to pay their last respects. Hundreds of blue seats neatly laid out in the square for mourners were empty with a few MPLA supporters filing past the coffin to bid their final farewell.

"We are here to salute our president, the president of peace, the president of national reconciliation, the president who helped us through the war, and we live in peace thanks to him," said Solange Quiniani, dressed in the colours of the ruling party.

A small group of women wept, chanting the name of the man whose tenure was marred by allegations of sweeping nepotism and plunder of the oil-rich state's resources.

A few family members and government officials accompanied the casket to the square, but none of his children were present.

Some of his children were at loggerheads with the government and his estranged wife over where and when he was to be buried.

But a Spanish court last week ruled that the body be repatriated to his wife in Angola.

His eldest daughter Isabel dos Santos, who has faced a slew of investigations into her multinational business dealings, last week wrote on Instagram that she would not be able to see her father to his final resting place.

The funeral comes as dos Santos's MPLA party notched up its worst electoral performance in this week's polls.

After 97 percent of the results were tallied, an initial count showed the MPLA had won 51.07 percent of the vote, against 44.05 percent of its main rival, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).