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Congo postpones second round of chaotic elections
by Christian Tsoumou

Reuters    Translate This Article
21 July 2007

BRAZZAVILLE, July 20 (Reuters) - Congo Republic has postponed Sunday's second-round parliamentary election for a fortnight to allow candidates time to campaign, the government said on Friday, in the latest setback to the chaotic polls.

The oil-exporting central African country sacked its elections chief after the first round of voting last month when logistical delays and administrative confusion forced the ballot to be abandoned in more than a tenth of constituencies.

The election is set to strengthen veteran President Denis Sassou-Nguesso's stranglehold on power. His supporters secured virtually all the seats decided in first-round voting after several opposition parties boycotted the polls.

Voting for 19 of the National Assembly's 137 seats was finally reorganised for July 8 and 15, but full first-round results were announced only late on Thursday, leaving little time to campaign in areas where a run-off vote is required.

Territorial Administration Ministry officials announced the postponement on Friday, as the second-round campaign officially started.

The latest results brought the tally of Sassou-Nguesso's Labour Party and its allies to 50 of the 53 seats decided in the first round, including some won by supporters of the president who stood as independents.

Some opposition parties have boycotted the elections, accusing the president's supporters of trying to cheat. Others have demanded elections be reorganised after observers saw children voting and dead peoples' names appeared on voter lists.

Sassou-Nguesso has dominated politics in the former French colony for nearly three decades.

His first 13-year spell in power ended with defeat in multiparty presidential elections in 1992 but five years later his Angolan-backed Cobra fighters seized back power in a civil war that destroyed much of the capital Brazzaville and killed tens of thousands of people.

Along with Omar Bongo of neighbouring Gabon, Sassou-Nguesso is the subject of a police investigation launched in France last month into the origin of money used to buy property there.

Sassou-Nguesso has dismissed the proceedings as 'gratuitous racism and provocation' and said that 'all the world's leaders have chateaux and palaces in France, whether they are from the Gulf, from Europe or from Africa'.

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