Opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have denounced parliamentary elections held on Sunday as ”fraudulent” while international observers have given the polls a cautious thumbs-up, according to news reports on Tuesday.
Several presidential candidates speaking on United Nations radio accused incumbent President Joseph Kabila of vote-buying and irregularities in the distribution of voting cards.
”While serious questions can be raised in the run-up to the polls as to whether there was a level playing field for all candidates, it is too early to tell whether widespread rigging during voting was the order of the day,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, a Human Rights Watch international said.
Meanwhile, initial reports from the country’s Electoral Commission indicate that 60% of all votes from the vast country’s 50 000 polling stations have been counted. Voter turnout was reportedly high and first results are expected in three weeks.
In related news, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan hailed the polls as a ”milestone in the country’s peace process”, but urged calm while election results are being counted.
The UN Security Council has renewed an arms embargo intended to deter arms sales to foreign and local armed groups in the volatile east of the country. The embargo has been extended until July 2007.
More than 25-million voters were eligible to elect a new president and Parliament in DRC’s first multiparty polls in 45 years. Incumbent Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba were considered the favourites for the presidency.
The DRC elections were the most expensive ever supported by the UN, costing the international community as much as $400-million thus far. — Sapa-dpa