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Big turnout recorded in DR Congo elections

Election officials Sunday reported a high turnout in most of the Democratic Republic of Congo's 11 provinces where voters are being asked to approve a draft constitution.

As the first polling stations closed there were no reports of irregularities from the 280 international and 5,000 local observers, although radio reported a woman was trampled to death as a crowd rushed a polling station and a baby suffocated on its mother's back during a crush in a queue.

"All we can say this evening is that the participation rate is satisfactory overall," said Flavien Misoni, director of voting operations at the Independent Electoral Commission.

"It is very substantial in eight provinces," he said, indicating a turnout of above 60 percent.

The proposed constitution provides for a president elected by universal suffrage for a once-renewable five-year term, with a bicameral parliament whose members will also have five-year mandates.

The former Zaire has yet to recover from a regional war waged from August 1998 to December 2002 which embroiled the armies of several other African nations and left about three million people dead.

But in three provinces voters stayed away, Misoni said.

"In Kinshasa and Western Kasai [in the center] turnout is average, while in Eastern Kasai it is low," he said. "You have to treat that with care. Operations have not finished and we are waiting for the consolidated figures, which we will not have until [Monday] after all polling stations are shut."

"The operation is going well," electoral commission head Apollinaire Malu Malu said earlier.

"Here and there we have had some problems getting under way, some pushing and shoving, but what is important is that people have responded massively to this hugely important referendum," Malu-Malu said.

"That is the biggest news: people want elections. They are ready and they are showing it," Malu he said.

About 35,000 polling stations of the 40,000 that were planned opened throughout the vast country. Authorities said "logistical difficulties" and "security problems" in conflict areas meant some could not open on time.

Asked about the low turnout in the capital Kinshasa and in Mbuji-Mayi in Eastern Kasai, stronghold of the forces calling for a boycott of the vote, Malu Malu said it was too early to draw conclusions because of transport and electoral list problems and churchgoing practices.

"There was an intimidation attempt at one station in Mbuji-Mayi. Antisocial elements tried to dissuade electors from voting but it didn't work," he said.
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