Congo opposition cries foul after presidential poll blighted by mishaps

KINSHASA, (Reuters) - The main opposition camps in Congo’s presidential election yesterday complained of widespread irregularities after a chaotic vote disrupted by long queues, broken voting machines and torrential rain.

Voting in the election to replace President Joseph Kabila, who is due to step down next month after 18 years in power, continued into the evening in some Kinshasa neighbourhoods where polling had opened hours late due to an absence of voter rolls.

In other areas, election officials began counting ballots by torchlight, keeping count on classroom chalkboards. The first partial results are expected within the next two days.

While voting was mostly peaceful across Democratic Republic of Congo, there were incidents of violence.

At a polling station in South Kivu province in eastern Congo, a police officer shot dead a young man after a dispute over alleged voting fraud. The surrounding crowd then beat the officer to death, a witness and a local politician said.

An election official was also killed in the altercation, the electoral commission (CENI) said later.

Elections are a rare event in Congo, which has been plagued by authoritarian rule, assassinations, coups and civil wars since independence from Belgium in 1960.

If Kabila, in power since his father’s assassination in 2001, steps down after the vote it will be the country’s first democratic transition.

However, any disputed outcome could lead to a security breakdown, particularly along Congo’s borders with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, where dozens of armed militia are active.

“FREE AND FAIR”

Kabila voted early in the morning in Kinshasa at the same school as the candidate he is backing, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, whom the latest opinion polls showed trailing two opposition candidates.

“It’s clear that the elections are free and fair, and will definitely be free and fair,” Kabila told reporters. He said his only concern was that the heavy rains might depress turnout.

But many Congolese were unable to cast ballots. At three opposition strongholds, in the east and west of the country, there was no voting at all after authorities cancelled the poll, citing health risks from an Ebola outbreak and ethnic unrest.

The Catholic bishops conference (CENCO) said electronic voting machines, criticised by the opposition as vulnerable to fraud, had malfunctioned in at least 544 of 12,300 polling places it monitored around the country.

Congo is about 40 percent Catholic and Pope Francis offered prayers for the country in a weekly address at the Vatican. “I hope everyone works to maintain a peaceful climate that allows regular and peaceful elections,” he said.

Some voters complained they could not find their names on the rolls, and flooded streets in Kinshasa prevented others from reaching their polling stations.

“There is a big mess and we are asking ourselves if this is not an organised chaos to ensure that tomorrow the constitutional court cancels everything,” said Felix Tshisekedi, one of the main opposition candidates, suggesting Kabila could cling on to power in the event of an annulled election.

His campaign director, Vital Kamerhe, said that in the western city of Inongo, the head of a polling station was found voting several times for Shadary and three machines there were converting votes for Tshisekedi into votes for Shadary.

Martin Fayulu, the other main opposition candidate, complained at a news conference that electoral lists were posted late, names were misprinted and machines did not work.

“All these irregularities will for sure have a negative impact on the process led today by the CENI,” he said.