Vote counting begins in DRC
2006-10-30 18:40
Kinshasa - Tallies were posted at polling stations across vast DRC and hundreds of United Nations trucks and minibuses swept around the capital collecting ballots on Monday - the massive vote for president over and the massive count beginning in a country trying to lead Central Africa from war to democracy.
Any signs of fraud or negligence in the count could waylay the transition.
The personal security forces of the two candidates in Sunday's run-off fought over results after the first round of voting in July. And Sunday wasn't quiet.
At least one person died as protesters who suspected ballot tampering ransacked a dozen polling stations and clashed with security forces in northern DRC.
A rights group said blockades set up by money-extorting soldiers prevented thousands from voting in the east.
Kabila favoured to win
A dozen polling centres were scheduled to reopen to give voters another chance in the northern town of Bumba after Sunday's violence.
The country's four-year postwar transition climaxed with the run-off between a president and a rebel warlord - a contest many hope will bring stability to a region that has been raven by years of dictatorship and wars that pulled in more than half a dozen African nations.
President Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba - a former rebel leader who's now a vice-president in a power-sharing government have pledged to accept the results and international observers said Sunday's polls closed with relatively few incidents.
Kabila is favoured to win a five-year term, but some voters were wary of either choice.
"We have an impossible choice to make. Bemba is a bandit and Kabila is not intelligent enough to govern DRC.
But we have to make do and hope for the best," said Nelson Bagula, 25, a law student in the eastern town of Goma. "Our country is so rich, but our people are the poorest. We are voting with hope that this will change."
Some stations posted local results
Kabila, credited by many here with launching the post-war transition process, captured 45% of the first round vote, compared with Bemba's 20%.
During his term as interim president, Kabila has kept a low profile and rarely made public appearances. But he has convinced foreign governments he is capable of governing.
During the war, Bemba ruled a large chunk of northeastern DRC with support from neighbouring Uganda.
Bemba is credited with accepting the power-sharing agreement that ended the fighting. He is strong in his native northwest, in the capital and among supporters of Congo's late dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.
The Central African Republic this year issued an international arrest warrant for Bemba for alleged involvement in a rebellion there. The case is before the International Criminal Court.
Vote counting began late on Sunday, with electoral workers tallying ballots by battery-powered lanterns and candlelight.
Some stations posted their local results as early as 23:00, but overall results are not expected for several days.
The electoral commission has said it will issue provisional results by November 19.
"The country has been destroyed by the dictatorship and war," said Xavier Kekeli, a 44-year-old French teacher working an electoral station in Kinshasa that stayed open late into the evening to accommodate those kept away by morning rainstorms.
- SAPA