DRC loser goes to supreme court
2006-11-18 23:17
Kinshasa - The losing candidate in the run-off presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo has filed a complaint with the country's supreme court contesting the result, local media reports said Saturday.
Delly Sesanga, a member of the Union for the Nation, the political coalition of vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, said: "There were many, many irregularities. It was not at all democratic.
"We are confident the supreme court will correct the result."
Congo's national electoral commission announced the victory of incumbent President Joseph Kabila late on Wednesday.
Kabila won just more than 58% of votes in the October 29 election.
But Bemba, a former rebel leader, rejected the results in a televised speech on Thursday.
The Union for the Nation claims its candidate won the election with 52% of ballots, according to their own count.
Election observers overwhelmingly hailed the polls as conforming to international norms.
Several hundred Bemba supporters gathered outside the supreme court building in Kinshasa on Saturday, chanting pro-Bemba slogans and carrying posters displaying their candidates image.
Party militant Flash Mipa, 22, told Deutsche- Presse Agentur dpa: "The life or death of the Congo is in the hands of the supreme court.
"If the supreme court doesn't give us justice, (Kabila) will not be able to work. He will be blocked by the population."
The court now has seven days to weigh the merits of Bemba's complaints before either certifying or rejection the election results.
The elections in Congo were its first open and free polls in more than 40 years. They are meant to draw to a close a dark period in the country's history, which saw an estimated four million people die in a 1998-2003 civil war. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA