Congo election marred by irregularities, violence

Voting materials failed to arrive in some opposition strongholds, but Congo's election went ahead Monday, raising doubts about the legitimacy of a poll that already has seen at least nine people killed and could drag sub-Saharan Africa's biggest nation back into conflict.

'They led us into this election. The population was not prepared for it. And now there is a real risk of conflict when the results come out.' Jerome Bonso, Coalition for Peaceful and Transparent Elections

Country experts and opposition leaders had urged the government to delay the vote due to massive logistical problems in Congo, which has suffered decades of dictatorship and civil war. Some polling stations are so remote that ballot boxes had to be transported far across muddy trails on the heads of porters and by dugout canoe across churning rivers.

There are fears that election disputes could spark more violence in this country, where militias and rebel groups still terrorize citizens in the country's east.

Violence over the weekend left at least four people dead, and it continued overnight Monday when gunmen opened fire on a truck transporting ballots in the southeastern town of Lubumbashi. That attack and a subsequent one on a voting centre left five more dead, according to Dikanga Kazadi, the provincial interior minister. In the capital, police fired tear gas at a polling station after rival political supporters clashed.

In pockets throughout the country, voting centres were forced to open late, and some didn't open at all as they waited for trucks ferrying the necessary forms and equipment. At polling station No. 10053 located in the same Catholic school, election officials could not open because the ink used to mark the index fingers of voters hadn't been delivered.

"We can't start like this. We're not even properly dressed," said Baudouin Lusagila, the head of the polling station, whose team also lacked the signature blue vests printed with the electoral commission's logo. "Of course I'm worried. There is too much improvisation. Too many delays."

Hurried election

The vote is the second since the end of Congo's last war and the first to be organized by the government instead of the international community. There were delays at every step in the preparation. The ballots were only printed in South Africa two weeks ago not enough time to deliver them to the remote corners of a nation the size of Western Europe where less thantwo per cent of the roads are paved.

The government is in a hurry to hold the vote because incumbent President Joseph Kabila's term expires in the first week of December. If a new president is not elected by then, analysts say the country could slide into a situation of unconstitutional power, a scenario that could provoke further unrest.

At polling stations that opened on time in the capital, lines were small and several were empty after a torrential rain began to pound the pavement. Inside the Gombe secondary school where Kabila cast his ballot, the women lined up after him were wearing shower caps. Kabila urged citizens to go to the polls and warned of what was at stake.

"Our country, the Democratic Republic of Congo has come a long way, from a situation of war, and of all manner of conflict whose end result was suffering," Kabila said on state television on the eve of the election. "Let us be careful not to return to where we have come from. By participating in the votewe are guaranteeing the stability and the future of our country."

Among the logistical challenges is the staggering number of candidates (18,385) competing for the 500 seats in parliament. Posters of candidates featured their number on the ballot, which is as thick as a weekend supplement in a major newspaper. A third of Congolese adults can't read, a rate that is even higher among women. Many were showing up with slips of paper filled in by relatives stating the number of their candidate of choice.

Even that didn't help Celine Madiata, first in line to vote at the polling station inside a Catholic college in the capital. She stepped behind the cardboard voting screen, and opened the voluminous ballot paper, carefully scrolling down.

It took her several minutes to recognize the No. 50, which she circled. "I voted for Bala Basu," she said.

Except that Candidate No. 50 isn't Bala Basu. It's a politician named Rubenga Kamanda. Country watchers worry that mistakes like Madiata's are being repeated throughout the country and could delegitimize the election in the eyes of the population.

Voters unprepared

"It's like leading an animal to the slaughterhouse. It doesn't realize until it gets there what is in store for it," said Jerome Bonso, co-ordinator of the Coalition for Peaceful and Transparent Elections. "They led us into this election. The population was not prepared for it. And now there is a real risk of conflict when the results come out."

It's unclear if the lateness observed in voting centres nationwide will affect the outcome of the vote, but it added to a cloud of uncertainty. Because the opposition is split with 10 candidates vying to unseat the 40-year-old Kabila, most analysts expect him to win.

That will come as an especially hard blow in Kinshasa, where his popularity has hit rock bottom due to the spiralling cost of basic goods and worsening poverty. Billboards showing the youthful president have been defaced, tarred with mud.

Kabila was first thrust into the position of president a decade ago, after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, the rebel leader who toppled the country's dictator of 32 years, Mobutu Sese Seko and later won the country's 2006 election.

The younger Kabila initially benefited from his father's aura, who was credited with ridding the country of a man known for chartering the Concorde for personal trips and sipping pink champagne while his population languished in abject poverty.

People celebrated when the ruler's family was forced to run onto a cargo plane to escape, thepresident's wifestill wearing her nightgown. But a campaign poster for Mobutu's sonFranois Joseph Mobutu, who is one of the 11 presidential candidatesunderlines how much the younger Kabila's popularity has dipped since he was first elected five years ago.

"Mobutu was there for 32 years. He pillaged the country. But are we any better off now? The Democratic Republic of Congo has manganese, cobalt, coltan, oil, diamonds," said 45-year-old Ndukis Mubiala, a taxi driver who is voting for the ex-dictator's son. "I'm a chauffeur. I don't own a house. In my bank account, there's zero. Like before, 10 per cent of the population gets everything, 90 per cent gets nothing."