DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: European Union monitors see close DR Congo vote, urge calm

European Union monitors gave the historic elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a broad thumbs-up on Wednesday (November 1) but said the tally could be close and urged candidates and their supporters to respect the result and avoid further violence. Sunday's (October 29) presidential run-off and provincial assembly polls passed off peacefully across most of the vast country despite fears of violence following street battles between soldiers loyal to the presidential candidates after the first round. Philippe Morillon, head of the EU observer mission, told reporters: "All of us, international and national observers, are all the more aware of our responsibilities as the vote could be closer, and we need to be careful there is no attempt by extremists to contest the results by violence." Joseph Kabila, who inherited the presidency from his slain father in 2001, won 45 percent in a July vote, against 20 percent for Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel and vice-president in a power-sharing government set up to end a 1998-2003 war. No numbers have yet been published from Sunday's run-off between the two and provisional results may take three weeks. Diplomats in the capital Kinshasa say the closer the vote, the more chance of violence by supporters of the loser. The electoral commission said on Tuesday false results being reported by some people risked raising tensions already high in the capital Kinshasa, where the private armies of Kabila and Bemba fought bloody battles in August, killing over 30. The first round of voting exposed a deep divide between Kabila's native Swahili-speaking east and Bemba's Lingala-speaking west, which includes Kinshasa. The EU has around 1,300 troops in Kinshasa, backing the biggest U.N. peace force, but the EU mandate expires on Nov. 30. Voting was rerun on Tuesday (October 31) in the northern town of Bumba, where police shot dead two rioters who destroyed polling stations. Polling was due to be rerun on Thursday (November 2) in Fataki, eastern Congo, where people burned polling stations and up to 25,000 ballots after a soldier killed two election workers. In Boma, near the mouth of the mighty Congo river, police shot in the air on Tuesday at an electoral commission office to disperse a rioting crowd stirred up by rumours of election rigging, said Morillon, a member of the European Parliament. The EU observers criticised media on both sides for giving unfair coverage to their favoured candidate during campaigning.

ITN Source | November 2, 2006

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