DR Congo opposition candidate calls for election to be annulled

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Source: The Guardian

A leading opposition challenger to president Joseph Kabila has called for the elections to be annulled, accusing authorities of systematic fraud.

Vital Kamerhe, a former government minister, said ballots had been marked in advance of the poll in favour of Kabila, and some voters had been prevented from entering polling stations during Monday's chaotic polls.

"There can be no doubt as to the scale of the fraud, deliberately planned by those in power with the connivance of the national election commission," Kamerhe wrote in a letter to Kabila, the election commission and international bodies.

"Police chased witnesses from polling stations before counting could start," he added, citing reports by international observers and others that security forces took control of voting stations in Kinshasa. "These elections must quite simply be annulled."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/democratic-republic-congo-call-election-annulled