In DR Congo, senior UN official warns against premature results of historic elections

The senior United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) voiced concern today that some candidates and local media outlets are violating the country’s election laws by publishing preliminary results of Sunday’s historic polls.

William Lacy Swing, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative to the DRC, urged candidates to resist the temptation to proclaim victory or allege fraud before the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the courts had completed their work.

“It is in the interest of the people and the process to remain patient and calm,” he told reporters in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital.

The UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said the IEC and the DRC Government’s media authority have threatened to close the media outlets that have been publishing results before the official count is released.

The IEC, which under the country’s laws is the sole authority permitted to release election results, has estimated that a provisional tally will not be available before 20 August.

Speaking later to reporters in New York via videoconference, Mr. Swing acknowledged that the rules about proving electoral fraud and the fact that it would take three weeks to release results had probably not been sufficiently publicized before the elections.

“The weakness in the referendum and election was civil education,” he said. Mr. Swing attributed that to the lack of funds and the difficulty in travelling around the country, which is the size of Western Europe but only has 500 kilometres of paved roads.

The elections, the largest ever supported by the UN, took place in an atmosphere of relative calm. Turnout was high in almost the entire country, with the exception of Kasai region, where there were some minor incidents, such as the burning of electoral stations and kits.