KINSHASA, CONGO (Aug 3, 2006)
Riot police fired into the air yesterday to disperse scores of angry workers demanding payment for manning polling stations during Congo's historic elections.
Meanwhile, counting continued from Sunday's vote, which drew 80 per cent of Congo's 25- million registered voters. No official preliminary results were being released and the final tally was expected to take several weeks.
In the capital, security forces also fired tear gas and could be seen hitting at least one person with batons to disperse about 150 workers outside offices of the Independent Electoral Commission. Some of the protesters, who gathered at various electoral commissions centres, said they hadn't been paid fees equivalent to about $80 Cdn.
Electoral officials weren't immediately available for comment. It wasn't clear when the workers were supposed to receive their payments.
Some 17,600 United Nations peacekeepers and 2,000 European troops are deployed to help ensure peace during the vote in the Central African country, where wars in 1998-2002 attracted troops from at least seven countries in a regional battle to control vast mineral resources.
Spectator wire services