10 DRC election workers held
2006-09-04 21:28
Kinshasa - Authorities arrested 10 electoral workers for allegedly helping a legislative candidate in Democratic Republic of Congo's historic elections and as a result the final announcement of parliamentary results was postponed, said officials on Monday.
Dieudonne Mirimo, an electoral commission spokesperson said: "The workers allegedly cheated on behalf of a rebel supporter-turned-candidate for post-war DRC's 500-seat legislature, pushing the release of final results back from Monday until Thursday."
He said the electoral workers were arrested in the capital, Kinshasa, and had supported the wartime Rally for Congolese Democracy, whose leader Azarias Ruberwa failed to advance to a two-candidate, second-round run-off in the presidential vote.
He gave no further details, citing an ongoing investigation.
Six electoral workers - out of about 50 000 across the vast nation of Congo - were earlier detained on charges of cheating during the presidential vote count.
Problems will not affect results
While international election monitoring groups have identified regularities in the country's first multiparty vote in 45 years, they generally agree the problems wouldn't affect the outcome in a country of 25 million registered voters.
President Joseph Kabila will face another former rebel leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, in the October 29 run-off after neither candidate captured a majority of votes in the July 30 vote. Thirty-three candidates stood for the presidency and thousands ran for seats in the national assembly.
The elections are meant to end decades of coups, wars and corrupt governance that have wracked DRC since its independence from Belgium in 1960.
A new administration will replace a national-unity government arranged under peace deals that ended the 1996-2002 war. About 17 500 UN peacekeepers are helping provide security and oversee the vote, but much of the east remains violent.
- AP