Democracy Watch rebuffs Miru’s defense

Election watchdog Democracy Watch, which had earlier warned Commission on Elections of Miru System’s disastrous performance in the recent Iran and Congo elections, had rejected the firm’s blanket denials.

In a statement, Democracy Watch said that “facts and evidence must be the sole qualifier in this process and not simply statements in response by the proponents.”

The watchdog cited a report by the Carter Center, an international election observation mission that deployed long-term observers across Congo, which confirmed the technical failures, saying that “… the quality of the voter register has been questioned by numerous interlocutors, who have cited concerns about the quality and transparency of the process.”

“The Center also stated that observers in around 22 percent of polling stations witnessed technical problems and prolonged periods of machine inoperability which led to the closure of some polling stations. This has led to the Congo election commission extending voting for another day,” the report said.

Democracy Watch also presented statements coming from Congo’s own watchdog groups, the Election Observation Mission of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo and the Church of Christ in Congo which said that “preliminary election report gathered from 60,000 nationwide volunteers mentioned that 45.1 percent of the polling stations experienced problems with their electronic voting machines.”

“Breakdowns and technical errors were rampant, thereby delaying voting and creating confusion among voters,” the Congolese groups said.

Democracy Watch also took exception to Miru’s statement that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq had declared the elections as “fair and successful.”