DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Electoral observers in Democratic Republic of Congo called for calm and urge voters and candidates to accept the outcome of the elections, a day after four opposition candidates called for Monday's elections to be annulled

Record ID: 327672

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Electoral observers in Democratic Republic of Congo called for calm and urge voters and candidates to accept the outcome of the elections, a day after four opposition candidates called for Monday's elections to be annulled
  • Date: 1st December 2011
  • Summary: CROWDED STREET IN KINSENSO NEIGHBOURHOOD IN KINSHASA RESIDENTS OF KINSENSO STANDING IN A SCHOOL YARD WHERE BALLOT PAPERS WERE BURNED BY ANGRY VOTERS
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Congo
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAATREUA9U1DPUZKKUZEYBJDEHG
  • Story Text: The African Union (AU) urged candidates in Democratic Republic of Congo's elections on Wednesday (November 30) to accept the outcome of this week's polls, saying they were well managed despite technical problems and violence.
    Presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday (November 28), the second since the 2003 end of a civil war, were accompanied by outbreaks of violence in which at least eight people died, shortages of voting materials and confusion over voter lists.
    Four presidential rivals to incumbent Joseph Kabila called for the vote to be annulled, alleging widespread fraud, a demand which the African observer missions rejected.
    AU observer mission chief Moctar Ouane, along with the Southern African SADC grouping and the ICGLR Great Lakes Region urged political parties and voters to accept the results of the poll.
    "We urge voters to accept the election results. If the elections are to be contested the process should be carried out in a manner that is responsible and is in accordance with the electoral process," Ouane said.
    Some polling stations were burnt down or attacked on Monday as frustrated Congolese tried to find out where they should vote or were prevented from doing so by a lack of voting equipment.
    Election commission spokesman Matthieu Mpita said voting was allowed on Tuesday (November 29) at about 800 polling stations that either experienced problems during voting or did not open at all, and that the process would be finished by Wednesday.
    But he said at least 130 polling stations in the southern Kasai provinces, which are opposition strongholds, would not see any extension to voting until enquiries had been carried out, adding that trouble had been fomented by local politicians.
    On Tuesday, tensions were still high at some polling stations in the capital Kinshasa, where voters had come to check the preliminary results of the counted votes, that were posted at polling station.
    In the sprawling neighbourhood of Kinsenso, residents complained of the lack of transparency in the vote, after ballot papers were burned, following an incident in which a member of parliament accused of belonging to the ruling party delivered ballot papers that were already marked.
    Etshikeof, a retired civil servant said voters were more politically aware than they had been in elections in 2006, which were the first post-war election organised largely under the auspices of the United Nations.
    "There was transparency in the 2006 elections, but it's different today in 2011. But what people don't know is that the voters in 2006 were not as aware as the ones in 2011. With time, people have become more politically conscious, and they want everything to happen in peace and they want things to be transparent as well," said Etshikeof.
    The National Election Commission has repeatedly denied accusations of bias and said it was confident that preparations for the election were largely in place, although many voters testified to the contrary.
    "There are people, armed men, who tried to come here at night and tried to take these ballot papers, but we prevented them from taking them. You saw what happened here during voting, the same happened at night," said Albert Kankolong, a polling station official in Kinshasa, where a pile of un-used ballot papers lay after angry crowd refused to allow officials to remove them for fear of fraud.
    Kabila's move this year to sign off on constitutional changes making the vote a single-round election was widely seen as giving him the edge against a split field of 10 rivals.
    However his chief challenger Etienne Tshisekedi's camp have said early indications from polling stations suggest he is in the lead, and Tshisekedi conspicuously failed to join the call of other candidates for an annulment.
    Preliminary results are due on Dec. 6.
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