A Russian judge has found Russia’s only independent election monitoring group guilty of election violations for posting voters’ complaints online ahead of parliamentary elections on Sunday. A Moscow court fined the small, Moscow-based observer group, Golos, about $1,000 for compiling election law violations and posting them online. Golos, whose name means “vote,” has nearly 5,000 […]
Russian Election Observers Fined for Election Violations
Election Official: Kabila Ahead in Early, Partial Vote Tallies
Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has taken an early lead in the vote count from this week’s presidential election. Mathieu Mpita, a spokesman for Congo’s Independent National Election Commission, told VOA Friday that President Kabila has 1.5 million votes so far, while veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi is running second with 996,000 votes. […]
Rights Group: 18 Dead in Election-Related Violence in DRC
Human Rights Watch says election-related violence killed at least 18 civilians and seriously wounded 100 others in the run-up to this week’s parliamentary and presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The US-based human rights group said Friday that most of those killed were shot dead by Republican Guard soldiers in the capital of […]
UN Urges Calm in DRC After Reports of Election Irregularities
The United Nations is urging calm in the Democratic Republic of Congo after European observers described widespread voting irregularities in this week’s presidential and parliamentary election. U.N. mission chief Roger Meece said Thursday he is concerned about the reports of irregularities, but stressed that any grievances should be addressed through peaceful means. A preliminary European […]
UN Urges Calm in DRC After Reports of Presidential Election Irregularities
The United Nations is urging calm in the Democratic Republic of Congo after European observers described widespread voting irregularities in this week’s presidential election. U.N. mission chief Roger Meece says any grievances must be addressed through peaceful means. A preliminary European Union report says election observers saw ballot box stuffing, ballot shortages, and said some […]
Bags Carrying Congo Ballots Pile Up in Parking Lot
Officials are tallying up votes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after elections that were originally set to last one day but stretched into three because of irregularities. The vote counting itself ran into some problems Thursday. Witnesses say thousands of plastic bags containing ballots were piled up in a parking lot outside a compilation […]
AU Asks Congolese Candidates to Accept Results
The African Union has urged candidates in this week’s Congolese elections to accept the results, one day after four presidential hopefuls called for the results to be annulled. Voting for the presidential and legislative elections began Monday and has stretched into Wednesday in some areas because of a shortage of ballots. In a joint statement […]
DRC Voting Extended After Violence, Late Ballots
Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo are continuing Tuesday in areas where violence or undelivered ballots prevented people from voting Monday. Election officials have begun counting votes where polling happened peacefully and ended more or less on schedule. President Joseph Kabila is expected to win re-election, in part because of a new voting system […]
DRC Voting Extended After Violence, Late Ballots
Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been extended into Tuesday in areas where people were unable to vote because of violence or undelivered ballots. Voting materials arrived late or in some cases were not delivered at all in precincts throughout the country. Some polling stations were also affected by violence, mostly in the […]
Incidents of Unrest, Violence Mar DR Congo Elections
Millions of Congolese voters cast ballots Monday in the country’s second multi-party elections since the end of a brutal civil war in 2003. There were reports of violence and accusations of fraud in some of Congo’s major cities, though voting appeared to come off peacefully in many areas. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns reports from the […]