Opposition call to scrap DRC poll amid criticism by monitors

Monitors reported widespread fraud in Democratic Republic of Congo elections and presidential rivals demanded an annulment as votes were counted Tuesday in polling marred by deadly violence. Raising concerns about the integrity of the vote, domestic and international election observers cited ballot box stuffing, undelivered ballot papers and millions of voters turned away from polling stations. "The irregularities are so widespread it will be difficult for anyone to ignore and say they had no impact on the integrity of the vote," said Pascal Kambale, country director for the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. The presidential race pitted incumbent Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, against 10 challengers. Four of them on Tuesday demanded the annulment of the vote, alleging fraud by Kabila and condemning a host of flaws at polling stations, from the exclusion of opposition party monitors to the failure of many to open. In a joint statement, three of the candidates said they "demand the invalidation, pure and simple, of these elections given the breaches and irregularities", a call later echoed by a fourth candidate. Kabila's main rival, veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, did not join the call. His campaign said he was still gathering information on the vote from around the country. The president of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, defended the organisation of the polls. "There's nothing to make us annul these elections, truly nothing, we aren't even thinking of it. Ninety-nine percent of polling centres opened on voting day, and only 485 (of 64,000) had problems," he told a press conference. Of the candidates' annulment call, Mulunda said: "They should wait for the results." The elections commission had faced criticism throughout the build-up to the polls for running chronically behind schedule as it struggled to overcome logistical challenges in an impoverished country two-thirds the size of western Europe. Preliminary results in the presidential race are not expected until December 6, and the parliamentary outcome until January 13, leaving the country with a tense wait after a chaotic election during which at least 10 people died. Monitors said millions of voters had been turned away countrywide because their names were not on the rolls -- despite instructions from the elections commission to let anyone with a voter card cast a ballot. Jerome Bonso, coordinator of the Coalition for Transparent and Peaceful Elections, a Congolese group, said the vote had been tarnished by "attempts at fraud and manipulation", including ballot box stuffing. "It's an explosive atmosphere," he told AFP. "We risk having a very critical period of tensions." A UN source reported discoveries of pre-marked ballots, and the United States expressed concern about what it described as "anomalies". The UN Security Council also slapped sanctions Tuesday on a Congolese militia leader, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, who is standing for parliament despite being wanted for his alleged role in mass rapes. Sheka is head of the Mai Mai Sheka group, accused of hundreds of rapes of women and children in 2010 in the eastern district of Walikale. The French, British and US missions to the United Nations had him added to the list of people subject to a worldwide travel ban and assets freeze. Voting continued Tuesday after the elections commission extended polling at centres that had failed to open or experienced delays. There were no reports of renewed violence after Monday's deadly unrest in Lubumbashi, the country's second city and the capital of the mining province of Katanga. The city was rocked Monday by apparent separatist attacks carried out by gunmen on an election vehicle convoy and a polling station in the city centre. Officials said seven or eight assailants were later killed by military and police. The polling centre attack killed two policemen and a woman who had gone to vote. The centre re-opened Tuesday so voters could again cast their ballots after the originals were burned in the attack. "We were asked to work because people are thirsty to vote," election official Hugo Kasongo, who was present during the attack, told AFP.