Vote-counting started in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after the vast, war-scarred state turned out to choose a democratically elected president for the first time in more than four decades.
Voting proceeded mainly in calm, with only scattered reports of violence after a tense campaigning period.
"We did not see the same level of emotion as in the first round," said Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman for the UN mission in the country (MONUC).
PHOTO: EPA
"People were not running round from dawn, but came to vote calmly in quite large numbers throughout the day," she said.
More than 25 million citizens were registered to vote, choosing between President Joseph Kabila -- the favorite to win after he took a lead in July's first round -- and Jean-Pierre Bemba, a businessman and former rebel.
In Kinshasa, where EU troops helped police the process, the start of voting saw torrential rain.
Elsewhere, in the northern province of Equateur, one person was killed when fighting broke out over reported ballot-stuffing.
The election was hailed as a success overall, however. The European Commission congratulated its peacekeeping force, EUFOR, and MONUC for their part in the "successful rollout of polling."
Election officials and observers manned 50,045 polling stations across the country.
Stations in the east closed an hour earlier than the scheduled shutdown at 5pm in the west. Opening hours were extended for centers affected by the earlier rain.
Counting started immediately after the close of polls, although provisional results were not expected until Nov. 19.
Fears of violence had run high after a rocky electoral campaign period studded with almost daily clashes in the provinces and after fighting in Kinshasa in August between the presidential guard and Bemba's militia, which claimed at least 23 lives.
The two candidates had pledged not to resort to violence and called on the voters to follow their peaceful example.
The chief of the Independent Electoral Commission, Apollinaire Malu Malu, said serious incidents were reported only in Equateur, where one person was killed.
Police said the violence erupted in Bumba, a border town on the Congo river, when a polling station chief was caught stuffing a ballot box on Kabila's behalf and angry Bemba supporters retaliated, leading to clashes with police.
Malu Malu added that 12 polling stations were ransacked in Bumba and two in Bikoro, where voting would be rescheduled.
More than 1,000 international and 40,000 Congolese observers were monitoring the polls, while some 80,000 policemen, 17,600 UN troops and 1,200 EU soldiers were helping with security.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS