Congo's Kamerhe withdraws call to annul elections

Vital Kamerhe,
Congolese opposition candidate

Congo's Kamerhe withdraws call to annul elections

Congolese opposition candidate, Vital Kamerhe, on Wednesday, withdrew his call for the November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections to be annulled on the grounds of widespread irregularities.

The move means that both Kamerhe and veteran opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, the other serious rival standing against President Joseph Kabila, appear happy to allow the ballot count to go ahead.

Kabila's camp meanwhile accused its rivals of pre-empting official results and said security measures were being taken to contain trouble.

Three opposition candidates have called for the vote, which was plagued by delays and isolated outbreaks of violence, to be cancelled.

African observer missions on Wednesday praised the poll while the US-based Carter Center raised some concerns but said its too early to make a judgement.

Annulment

In a letter on Monday addressed to senior Congolese and international officials Kamerhe had called for the poll to be annulled due to irregularities.

However, two days later and after results had started being published, Kamerhe, a former speaker of parliament and minister of Kabila's, told journalists there had been improvements in voting conditions during election day.

"At this moment, we are not calling for the cancellation of the results", Kamerhe said, suggesting that the results should be widely published as they are collated to avoid fraud.

Kamerhe said he and Tshisekedi had considered joining others calling for the poll to be cancelled but had decided against it because witnesses had been allowed into polling stations and voters themselves controlled alleged efforts at ballot-stuffing.

Monday's elections were accompanied by violence in which at least eight people died, shortages of voting materials and confusion over voter lists.

The complaints of fraud have led to concerns that Congo could see a post-election dispute like that in Ivory Coast, which this year descended into four months of conflict when incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat.

REUTERS/Ehimen/Williams