Congo votes in polls likely to bolster ruling party

BRAZZAVILLE, June 24 (Reuters) Congo Republic voted today in parliamentary elections expected to strengthen the 10-year rule of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso in the central African oil producer.

Turnout was low due to a boycott by some opposition parties and the widespread expectation Sassou-Nguesso's ruling Congolese Work Party (PCT) would increase its majority in the 137-seat national assembly.

In the riverside capital Brazzaville, many polling stations opened late as election materials were not deployed on time and voters trickled in during the morning. Voting was also delayed in the coastal economic capital Point Noire.

Around half of Congo's 4 million people are registered to vote for 1,021 candidates but many people have complained they have not received voting cards.

''The government has fulfilled its duty by holding elections on the date fixed by the constitution,'' Sassou-Nguesso said after casting his vote in Brazzaville. He dismissed the boycott and said the conditions were in place for a fair ballot.

The army general took office at the head of military regime in 1979 and ruled for 13 years before losing elections in 1992 during a democratic transition. He returned to power in 1997 in an Angolan-backed uprising which sparked a two-year civil war.

He was ratified in office at presidential polls in 2002 at which opposition candidates were prevented from campaigning.

One of his main rivals, Bernard Kolelas, returned from exile in 2005 and joined Sassou-Nguesso's movement.

Long-time rebel leader Pastor Frederic Ntoumi, a former supporter of Kolelas, ordered his ''Ninja'' fighters to lay down their arms this year and joined the government as a junior minister in charge of promotion of peace.

DAMAGING DEMOCRACY Observers from the African Union and the central African regional bloc CEMAC were present today. Opposition parties accuse the government of packing the electoral commission with its supporters and tampering with electoral lists.

''This is damaging for our democracy,'' said Eugene Sama, a spokesman for the opposition Assembly for Democracy and Development.

''We have called for a boycott because we do not believe there can be fair elections.'' Major opposition parties, including the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) of ex-President Pascal Lissouba, decided to contest the polls. In many parts of the north, however, there were no challengers to the official candidate.

Congo Republic, which was ravaged by the 1997-1999 civil war, is sub-Saharan Africa's fifth largest oil producer but more than half its population lives below the poverty line. It was ranked as the fourteenth most corrupt country in the world in a 2006 Transparency International survey of 163 nations.

Revelations over Sassou-Nguesso's personal spending helped delay a debt-relief deal for Congo in 2006 and the country has also been involved in legal wrangles with creditors who accuse it of hiding oil revenues while refusing to pay sovereign debt.

Results from today's polls are expected in around a week, although no official deadline has been set. If no candidate wins a majority in a parliamentary district, the vote will go to a second round on July 22.

REUTERS JT RN2120