Ethiopian Review

People in the Republic of Congo are voting in an election which opposition leaders say will be neither free nor fair.

President Denis Sassou-Nguesso has been in power for most of the past 30 years, and is hoping for another term.

But his opponents have urged voters to stay away, saying the government has inflated the electoral roll figures.

The BBC’s Thomas Fessy in the capital Brazzaville says many people have left the city fearing unrest.

Mr Sassou-Nguesso told a rally of his supporters in the capital: “Fear not and go and vote. There will not be any more war in Congo.”

But his main rival, Mathias Dzon, and four other candidates have urged voters to boycott the polls.

‘Monstrous register’

“No-one should go and vote on Sunday. Stay at home – we don’t want an electoral hold-up or a parody of an election,” said Clement Mierrassa, head of the opposition Congolese Social Democratic Party.

But reports said that, although voter turn-out was slow in the first few hours after the polls opened, it later started to pick up.

“I have just voted. I hope the president will win,” said 30-year-old Georges Itoua.

“But if he is re-elected, he must tackle the problem of unemployment, increase teachers’ salaries.”

Government officials say more than two million people have been registered to vote but Roger Bouka Owoko, head of the Congolese Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), said that figure was “grotesque”.

“Congo cannot have so many electors,” he said. “This monstrous electoral register is the drawback of the electoral process.”

One election observer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse that: “There are more observers than voters”.

The head of the European Commission delegation in Congo, Miguel Amado, said he also had concerns about the electoral roll being used and said many people had not received voting cards.

- BBC