CONGOLESE VOTING CHAOS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30712, 30 March 1965, Page 13

CONGOLESE VOTING CHAOS

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LEOPOLDVILLE, March 29.

Voting in the Congolese elections ended in chaos here yesterday with Government officials accusing electoral officers of sabotaging the balloting.

About 160.000 intending voters waited for hours outside polling booths which failed to open. Most of the booths had neither ballot boxes nor ballots; others did not have lists of the party candidates.

Observers said last night that furious Government officials had arrested the

president of the Leopoldville electoral commission and his deputy. The Interior Minister, Godefroid Munongo, blamed the commission for the balloting break down and said he had ordered an “immediate investigation.” The Congo President, Joseph Kasavubu, was among the voters who arrived to cast a vote, only to find the polling booths closed with no ballot papers or ballot boxes available.

The voters began queueing up shortly, after dawn to cast their votes for the 315 candidates representing 65 parties contesting the 13 seats allocated to Leopoldville in the Chamber and the Senate. The elections began in Katanga province on March 18. Because of the rebellion raging in north-east Congo, balloting has been staggered and will continue until April 30. More than 200 parties are

contesting the 166 seats at stake in the elections for the central government. Provincial governments are being elected at the same time. Although many African Governments refused invitations from the Congo Premier, Moise Tshombe, to send observers to the elections, observers from Nigeria, Zambia, Liberia, Gabon, Madagascar, Upper Volta, Burundi and Togoland witnessed yesterday’s events in Leopoldville.

FOOD-LADEN trucks rolled into the Montenegro town of Savnik yesterday, ending a threat of famine for its 5000 inhabitants who had been cut off by snow for three months.