Sassou's ruling coalition takes lead in Congo poll
Source: Reuters
By Christian Tsoumou BRAZZAVILLE, June 30 (Reuters) - Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso looked set to tighten his grip on parliament on Saturday as his ruling coalition won the vast majority of assembly seats decided in a first round of voting. Several opposition parties boycotted last Sunday's poll, accusing Sassou-Nguesso of trying to boost his majority unfairly. Voting was so chaotic that it will have to be repeated in some areas and the government sacked the elections director for negligence. Results announced in the capital Brazzaville by Sassou-Nguesso's Territorial Administration Minister Francois Ibovi showed the opposition won just two of the 44 seats decided in the first round. The remainder of the 137 seats in the oil producing country's National Assembly will be decided in run-off voting on July 22. Polls will be reorganised on July 6 or 8 in 19 constituencies where voting materials failed to arrive. The "presidential movement" coalition led by Sassou-Nguesso's formerly Marxist Congolese Labour Party (PCT) secured 35 seats, with seven going to independent candidates. The opposition Pan-African Union for Social Democracy won two seats in Niari, the home region of its leader Pascal Lissouba, who ended Sassou-Nguesso's first 13-year rule by winning multiparty presidential elections in 1992. Five years later Sassou-Nguesso's Angolan-backed "Cobra" fighters overthrew Lissouba in a civil war that killed thousands of people and laid waste parts of Brazzaville, situated on the north bank of the wide Congo river opposite the larger Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa. Some opposition parties have demanded the entire election be reorganised after observers reported under-aged people casting ballots and the names of dead people appeared on electoral rolls -- while some voters found themselves left off the list.
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