DR Congo ruling party leads parliamentary vote count

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila's party is leading the race for parliamentary seats, a provisional tally of votes cast in November polls showed overnight. Kabila's PPRD party has captured 58 of the 432 seats counted so far in the 500-seat parliament, according to provisional figures seen by AFP. The party had won 111 seats in the last elections in 2006. Second placed was opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi's UDPS, with 34 seats. The UDPS had boycotted the 2006 polls, and its leader has denounced the November 28 elections as flawed. Among parties allied to the PPRD, four have obtained between a dozen and over twenty parliamentary seats, while in the opposition camp only two parties has achieved such numbers so far. The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) is expected to unveil the remaining figures on Monday next week -- having announced on Tuesday it was postponing the announcement, due Thursday, "until further notice". Electoral candidates and observer groups have charged that polling and vote-counting was chaotic, while candidates have cried foul. In total, almost 19,000 candidates vied at the polls for 500 seats in the National Assembly of the DR Congo, a huge central African country that was wracked by two wars from 1997 to 2003. Eastern provinces are still conflict-ridden, partly over control of considerable mineral wealth. CENI came under heavy criticism in December when it announced the results of the presidential poll, which was held on the same day as the parliamentary elections. It gave victory to outgoing president Joseph Kabila, who first came to office in 2001 and was elected in the first post-war elections in 2006. He defeated Tshisekedi, who rejected the results and pronounced himself president-elect on December 24. The international community has denounced the elections as flawed. Foreign experts from two US groups have since January 5 been working with Congolese electoral officials on the legislative ballot's counting process in a bid to enhance the results' credibility and assuage fears of civil unrest. The CENI announced overnight that it had sought the annulation of elections in seven of the 169 voting districts due to incidents of violence or other interference. It would also recommend the prosecution of about 15 candidates accused of violence.