Congo authorities kill three gunmen in poll attack

Congolese authorities said they killed three masked gunmen and arrested seven others who attacked a polling station in the southern capital Lubumbashi as voting in a presidential election went ahead on Monday.

"Three people were killed, seven were arrested and five handed themselves over after being surrounded by the army," Moise Katumbi, the governor of the local Katanga province told Reuters by telephone from the city.

In the eastern lakeside town of Goma, which has seen some of the worst violence, polls opened slightly late but thousands of people lined up to cast their ballots.

"I am happy to have voted. I want change so I hope those that lose accept the results. We don't want trouble," Joel Mweso, a student, told Reuters.

A Reuters witness also saw residents in the capital, Kinshasa, voting after initial delays.
The last conflict in the mineral-rich state officially ended in 2003 but Congo remains plagued by pockets of instability and many people have yet to reap the dividends of eight years of relative peace.
In parts of the east, the vote will take place in areas still run by a plethora of local and foreign rebel groups.
Election commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda said on Sunday the country would prove critics wrong by holding credible and peaceful elections.
 

"Everyone's going to vote tomorrow, it's going to be a celebration of democracy. The Congolese people are going to take the second step in the consolidation of their democracy. We have kept our promise," he said on the eve of the vote.
The first post-war election in 2006 was seen as broadly free and fair but gunbattles erupted after the voting.
Doubts over the election have stemmed from delays throughout the process, which meant that preparations for the poll have been last-minute and, at times, chaotic.

United Nations troops and helicopters from Angola and South Africa have been called on to ferry election material to 60,000 polling stations across a nation the size of Western Europe with little infrastructure so some 32 million people can vote.

Provisional results are due on Dec. 6.

However, even in the capital voters complained of last-minute confusion over where they were meant to be voting due to polling stations being moved and errors with voter lists.
The opposition has also protested that election lists were not properly vetted, leading to potential fraud. After outbursts of violence during the campaign, there are also fears of a contested result.  (Reuters)