Two election workers killed after Congo poll

KINSHASA, Oct 30 (Reuters) A soldier shot dead two election workers in eastern Congo early today after historic elections had ended, provoking a riot in which 43 polling stations were destroyed, the United Nations said.

Leocadio Salmeron, UN spokesman in Bunia, the capital of war-scarred Ituri district, said the Congolese army sergeant appeared to be drunk.

He was arrested but angry people burned the polling stations, ballots and result sheets in Fataki, 80 km north of Bunia.

Electoral officials said the fire destroyed ballots at polling stations where 25,000 people were registered to vote in yesterday's election, intended to draw a line under decades of war and pillage that have left this vast central African country destitute.

Salmeron said local people had tried to lynch the sergeant after the murders in the early hours of the morning. When he was was arrested they went on a rampage, destroying about half the polling stations in the town.

Reuters SP RN1750